Galaxy Angel II: Door to the Absolute Territory Retold
by StevieBond
Summary: Four years had passed since the dimension gates became stabilised, now a new galaxy awaits to be explored along with a newly formed Angel Wing group. When Milfie is suddenly captured, it's up to Arnold and the new recruit Kazuya to rally the Angel Wing and prepare for the battles ahead. Follow-up story to the Galaxy Angel Retold Trilogy.
1. The New Recruit

**StevieBond: Hello everyone, here is the retold sequel you've been waiting for.**

 **Arnold: And I'm part of it once again!**

 **StevieBond: Well it is being retold from your point of view.  
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 **Arnold: Anyways, there's a heck of a lot that's changed.**

 **StevieBond: And as of this chapter, I have not decided on which girl to pair Kazuya up with but I should have one when the time comes, enjoy this chapter folks, this is going to be a great trilogy once again.**

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The New Recruit

Time flies…and due to the laws of time existing, that is no surprise to anyone. But looking back now, it's not hard to see why and how time does fly when you have so much to do.

Four years…four years have passed since the Moon Angel Wing and the Transbaal Fleet defeated the Val-Fasc and their leader, Gern, as well as preventing the Chrono Quake Bomb from consuming the galaxy.

I am Arnold Williams and I can say with hand on my heart that a lot has changed since then. A week after Tact and Ranpha's wedding, I had to go and see Lady Noah to discuss about how we can open dimension gates with the key I had retrieved from my family tree book back at Eden and keep them open.

The first galaxy we opened a dimension gate to was to be called NEUE, but if we were to keep the gate open, we needed two vital solutions. First would be to create a dimension gateway that would operate as the heart of the dimension gates and second, to have a dimension gate keeper to watch over the gateways to other galaxies.

I stated that the former would be the easy part but getting a gate keeper would prove to be extremely difficult to find, let alone share the knowledge and understanding towards the potential gate keeper, whoever it would be.

When the centre dimension gateway was finally constructed, we called it ABSOLUTE and the gateway to it would be located in the now deserted Val-Vaross area that was once filled by the Fal-Vasc, we had some of the military stationed there for just in case.

Once NEUE's gateway was connected to ABSOLUTE, we sent out a few scout ships to find a few planets along with new and rare kind of Lost Technology. Bringing the necessary equipment and forces was key to any possible negotiations that might occur. As for the dimension gate key that made it all possible in the first place, it now sits proudly on display in the centre heart of the Central Globe.

As a result of the generosity and peaceful meetings, the planets in NEUE began to flourish and thus, we moved most of the newly created forces to the galaxy. Of course, this took a very long time to process and during those four years, a lot had happened from my view.

First off, since the war between my home world of Eden and the Val-Fasc was officially over, there was no need for the full military might to be stationed across the EDEN galaxy. As a result of the new galaxy needing to keep the peace wherever possible…the Moon Angel Wing was disbanded.

When we got the news that we were assigned to different roles and that we had to separate, we were kind of disappointed not to be leading the charge in NEUE, but that wasn't all of it.

There were Emblem Frames discovered in NEUE which stunned us all and that meant a new Angel Wing would be formed along with a new commander ship that would be called the Luxiole which would end up becoming a more superior ship compared to the Elsior.

Because of me and the other six girls disbanding, we each went off to pursue our own careers and from my knowledge, they were all somewhat military-related.

Ranpha Mayers, now 23, is still married to Tact Mayers, she was the first to retire from military service and used her people's skills to become an ambassador for EDEN, whilst working on a planet called Magiic to improve social standings and the like.

Mint Blamanche, now 21, also retired from military service to follow in her father's footsteps and become a branch manager for the Blamanche Corporation where a space docking city was constructed in NEUE so new businesses under her corporation could thrive.

Forte Stollen, now 27, is one of the three still in military service, the other two I will explain shortly. She was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and helped to train up the new recruits of the military on the capital planet of NEUE, Seldar. She also was the one who recruited four girls to be part of the new group called the Rune Angel Wing as well as the new recruit I had with me.

Vanilla H, now 18, retired from the military and moved to the planet of Pico to assist the planet in its nanomachine research and helped pioneer the way for Nanomachine usage across NEUE.

Chitose Karasuma, now 22, is the second of three to remain in military duty, she was promoted to captain. She was alongside Forte when the training for new recruits took place on Seldar. She was also assigned to stay on the Elsior along with Lester and Almo, so that she and my old friend, Clayton would still be together.

Which leaves me to Milfeulle Sakuraba, now 22. When the ABSOLUTE gateway began to operate with the NEUE dimension gate, we discovered that Milfie was able to work with the functions impressively, because of this, she was assigned the dimension gate-keeper for EDEN. That meant that she would have to remain inside ABSOLUTE so that the gates between EDEN and NEUE could function without any problems.

And finally, as for me, I was now 24 and I was promoted to First Lieutenant of the Rune Angel Wing, which for me was the perfect fit, according to Forte since she said that I would one day become a leader after the way I handled myself in the battles all those years ago.

Whilst it was sad to say goodbye to the girls, there was a silver lining to all of it. Milfie and I are still engaged and very much in love, but because of our new responsibilities, we had agreed to put any chance of a wedding to the backburner for the foreseeable future.

Today was the day I was bringing a new recruit with me on a small shuttle that was on route to the Luxiole, he would be the second male member of the Rune Angel Wing, his name was Kazuya Shiranami who was 16, and he used to be a chef but boy was his life gonna change. He wasn't related to me at all, but he had that same spark of potential that I once had.

I looked at him as I was piloting the shuttle to see him with a calm smile and look of feeling keen and I couldn't blame him, most of the people I knew were beautiful girls, but that was way back ago, I only had one girl in my mind and it would be my engaged fiancé.

I could see the Luxiole in my sights and this got Kazuya's attention.

"Is that the Luxiole?" he asked.

"It sure is." I replied. "How do you feel about it?"

"I feel like I have joy inside me, since the angel wing is mostly female."

"Hah!" I laughed. "If I was your age, that's how I would feel as well."

"Wait, didn't you join the Moon Angel Wing when you were older than sixteen?"

I kept my eyes on the view. "Well of course, I was only 20 when I was part of that group."

He then sighed. "I just realised that I'm gonna be entering a life of military service, I hope I'm ready for this."

"Well if you weren't, you wouldn't have got that training from Forte and you wouldn't be with me in the shuttle, would you?"

He looked at me. "Speaking of Forte, is she and the rest of them back in EDEN?"

"The only one I am sure that isn't in EDEN is my fiancé, Milfie." I then sighed. "I miss giving her those daily affections."

"Oh yeah, Milfie was the one who chose my application." He replied. "I feel a bit of pride since I was picked and she and the rest of you are heroes."

"Oh stop the flattering." I dismissed lightly. "I told you before that I'm just like any other person and I'm sure that you getting picked may have been down to her uncanny luck."

I slowed down the shuttles speed as we landed on the Luxiole's runway and drove slowly inside into the hanger where three emblem frames were on display as well as mine that was in the middle at the far back.

I was really happy to still have my Silver Speeder with me on the new ship, even more so now that my frame had the big silver driller at the bottom of my frame once more, unlike that multi-purpose solar beam which I really did like, but with the dimension gates, I didn't need it anymore.

We got out of the shuttle as the hanger door behind us closed and Kazuya took a moment for it to sink it all in.

"So what do you think?" I asked him. "And this is just the hanger alone."

"This is…I almost have no words!" he exclaimed. "Are those the Emblem Frames?"

"Yeah, there's five frames we keep in the hanger, but we do have room for two more apparently." I pointed to a free space between two frames. "However on this occasion, there's only four because last I heard, one of the girls you will meet soon is on scouting duty with Forte."

"So were these found in NEUE?"

I began to feel boastful. "Yeah, that was my reaction when I first heard there were frames in this galaxy. Least I still have mine and it still works like a charm!"

Just then, two people walked towards us to the hanger, one of which was a very familiar face.

"Hey there Arnold." Tact greeted. "Long time no see."

Oh yeah, when the Luxiole was finished, Tact was promoted to Brigadier General and was given command of the Luxiole and Coco was assigned on radar duty with him on the bridge.

"Kazuya, this is Tact Mayers." I said. "Don't be shy."

Kazuya stood forward and saluted. "I apologise, Kazuya Shiranami, Second Lieutenant Sir!"

Tact seemed amused and I was too, he reminded me of Chitose a bit. "So this is the guy that Milfie chose?" he asked.

"Yep." I replied. "From what I heard from Forte, he's got great potential."

"Sure reminds you of when Forte saw the potential in you, right?"

I smiled, rolling my eyes. "Oh you, Tact…digging up the past as always, you haven't changed."

"Anyways, Kazuya, you can just call me Tact. I also wanna introduce you to one of the Angel Wing members." A girl with orange hair stood forward. I already know who it was since I first met her during a vacation with Milfie years ago as well as back at Tact and Ranpha's wedding.

Apricot Sakuraba, Milfie's younger sister, she was 10 when I first met her, now 14 and she was the first one to join the Rune Angel Wing which was no surprise since she really wanted to be a pilot when she grew up.

Suddenly, as Tact put his hand on her shoulder, I immediately gasped. Apricot squealed and grabbed Tact, before throwing him right up towards the ceiling before Tact fell back down hard on the metal floor. Kazuya was in shock and I didn't blame him, I had no idea how or why it happens when a guy touches her, but she doesn't seem to wanna tell anyone about it.

Tact suddenly regained his footing and walked back to us. "Uhh, sorry about that…Kazuya, this is second lieutenant, Apricot Sakuraba."

"Hi Kazuya." Apricot replied. "Mind if I ask that you call me Rico?"

"Hi Rico." Kazuya replied and he was about to put his hand out for a shake but then pulled it away after remembering what he just saw. "Umm, mind if you call me Kazuya in return?"

"Sure, I'll do my best." She then looked at me. "Happy to see you Arnold."

"Same to you, Apricot." I replied. Yes, I was one other person besides Milfie who was allowed to call her by her real name. "So with the greeting out of the way, what's next?"

"Well I gotta give Kazuya a tour of the ship first." Tact replied. "And I think the bridge should be a good place to start, shall we go?"

Kazuya nodded and we left the hanger and took the elevator to the top floor and walked to the bridge. The bridge on this ship was much bigger than back on the Elsior.

"Kazuya, this is Coco Nutmilk." Tact said. "She's the Chief operator of the ship."

"Greetings Kazuya." Coco replied, looking at us. "Good to see you back, Arnold."

"The feelings mutual, Coco." I said.

"Alright Kazuya, let's introduce the rest of the angel wing." Tact said.

"Uh Commander Mayers, there is administrative work that needs to be done." Coco reminded.

"In that case, let me do the tour." I suggested. "I know my way around the ship and if something happens, Apricot can back me up."

Tact nodded. "Very well then, I'll leave Kazuya in your hands."

"Cheers."

Kazuya, Apricot and myself left the bridge and took the elevator to the third floor to the lounge where there were separate rooms for the angels, with mine having one of the two bigger rooms.

Suddenly, a flying black cat with only a head for appearance zoomed towards me and stopped. "Please! Please!" he pleaded. "You gotta help me hide!"

I sighed. "Lemme guess, you're being chased by her again?"

"Yes…oh no she's here!" he zoomed away.

Two other girls appeared and stopped to see me. "Hi Arnold!" One of them greeted.

"Hi there Nano, are you chasing that cat again?"

"Umm yeah…"

I sighed. "Well that's one way to greet our newcomer."

"Oh, you have someone new?" she asked. "Hi there, I'm Nano Nano Pudding. What's yours?"

"I'm Kazuya Shiranami." He replied, "I don't mind if you just call me Kazuya."

"Well hello Kazuya." The blond hair girl said. "I am Kahlua Marjoram, nice to meet you. We don't mind if you call us by our first names too."

It felt nice to see them being friendly towards Kazuya. Nano was the third member to join the angel wing and with her cat-like traits, she's able to jump high places, her age is unknown for complicated reasons. Kahlua, 21, was the fourth and recent angel to join a long while back who could cast spells.

"Nano, please stop bullying Mimolette." Apricot requested.

"Who's Mimolette?" Kazuya asked.

"He is my black-cat familiar." Kaluha replied. "And there he is."

"Aha!" Nano exclaimed. "Gotcha!" she grabbed Mimolette and stretched him, causing a lot of pain that only I could imagine.

"Argh!" He yelled in pain.

"Okay Nano, that's enough." I gently warned. "We're here to give Kazuya a tour of the ship and it's my duty to carry out that task."

"Just before you do, I have a question for Kazuya." Kaluha said. "So umm, have you ever seen magic as frightening?"

"It's not something that I would fear." Kazuya replied.

"Well if you come by to the potion room on the ground floor, I'll show you."

"We'll keep that in mind." I said. "Anyways, Kazuya, let's begin the tour, we'll see you girls later."

"Alright Arnold, don't get lost." Apricot said as the girls and Mimolette left us.

I breathed in a little, it was time to start the tour.


	2. Tour of the Luxiole

**StevieBond: New chapter for you all just as soon as I posted the first one, am I good to you?**

 **Kazuya: I think you're spoiling them a little bit.**

 **Tact: Nah he isn't, I like this retold story already even though I'm not in it much.**

 **StevieBond: You'll be making occasional appearances eventually, just let it flow through. Anyways folks, remember to follow and fave if you wanna be updated on this story.**

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Tour of the Luxiole

"So just to explain a little, Kazuya." I said to him. "There are four floors on the Luxiole and we're currently on the third floor, this place here is the crew quarters and in one of these rooms is where you'll be staying."

"Which room is it?" he asked.

"This one here, next to the guest room from your right. That one over there with the pink flower on the door is Apricot's room, the big one next to her on the right is my room."

"Why is yours next to Rico's, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Well, because Milfie is far busy being the gate keeper, I sometimes have to keep tabs on her sister in case she needs anything. Although she tries her best to hide it, Apricot misses her sister just as much as I miss her. We often have little talks and try to keep the spirits up."

"It sounds like you two have a very good understanding."

I nodded. "Well we should do, I am engaged to Milfie after all and have been for four years."

"So how about the other rooms?"

"Ah yes, the room next to Apricot's on the left is Kahlua's room and the one next to her is Nano's room. There are three other rooms on that side, two are reserved for just in case we get any new recruits and one is occupied by our angel wing member who's away."

"Who is this angel wing member you're referring to?"

"Well, I better tell you then…that room is Lily C Sherbet's room, she's 19 and has an impressive collection of swords."

He blinked. "Swords?"

"Yeah, it's kind of similar to Forte having a gun collection."

"I won't ask…"

"Well don't…anyways, shall we move to the next floor of your choice?"

"Yeah, the first floor I think is next."

"Then follow me."

We took the elevator to the first floor and continued the tour. Our first stop was a room to the left of the elevator. "This here is the games room, you like?"

"So many game types." He commented. "This is just like being back at the arcade."

"I bet it is, the Elsior didn't have a room like this so you should be lucky."

We left to the next room. "Here is the tea lounge, you can get the finest tea and cakes in this place if you wanted one, for a good price."

"It seems nice." He replied. "Does anyone run this?"

"Yep, it's all watched over by Melba."

"Hi Arnold, good to see you, who is this?" Melba asked.

"This is Kazuya, he's joining the Angel Wing today."

"Hi Kazuya, I'm Melba Brownie, if you ever need any tea or cakes, come see me."

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind." He replied.

We left and went to the room next door.

"This is the convenience store, any snacks or drinks you want can be found here."

"Even frozen food?" he asked, seeing the frozen section in the back.

"Yep and remember the arcade room I showed you earlier? Well it's watched over by Luco here."

"Hi Arnold, are you doing a tour?" he asked.

"Sure am, this here is Kazuya, our new recruit."

"Hi Kazuya, looking forward to seeing you around here…by the way Arnold, I got you that box of wrapped brownie slices your ordered."

"Ahhh lovely." I replied rubbing my hands. "I'll be back for that later. Let's go, Kazuya."

We left the store and walked to the room at the end. "This is the training room, you looking to get fit or develop muscles, come over here and exercise to your heart's content."

"So many training equipment, do you use this room often?" He asked.

"Sure do, if I ever need to do any boxing, I just put them on and get to work. I like to keep myself in tip top shape."

"I guess that applies to the rest of the angels?"

"Absolutely, I don't wanna see a group of people, piloting like slobs…don't tell the girls I said that…I once did and Lily held her sword by my neck." I shivered.

Kazuya giggled. "So I guess it is true, you've still have a sense of humour."

I rubbed my head. "I've always had it, next stop is the ground floor, there's plenty more to see."

We took the elevator to the ground and floor and walked to the hanger.

"I still can't get over how big this place is." Kazuya said.

"And because of that, the hanger needs two engineers who see over the frames." I replied. "And here they come now."

"Hello Arnold, what brings you to the hanger?" the guy asked.

"Oh I'm giving this new recruit here a tour of the ship, he'll need to know the hanger well."

"Oh is this the new guy? Hello there kid, I'm Croix Blort and I am the head of the engineering team."

"I'm Kazuya." He replied.

Then a bit of clashing occurred and out came another person.

Croix sighed. "What are you up to now?"

"Hey old timer." She remarked before noticing us. "Oh are you that new kid that's joining the wing?"

"Yes, I am Kazuya." He replied.

"Hi Kazuya, I'm Coronet and I'm just an engineer."

"I should chip in and say that you'll probably see these two the most when you're in the hanger." I said to Kazuya. "Just be sure that you don't get involved in one of their regular quarrels."

"What you mean by quarrels?" he asked.

"I think he means you, grandpa." Coronet teased.

"You wanna another quarrel?" Croix answered back.

"Yeah just bring it…"

They then stood beside and look to the front of their view. Before running away, doing a lap for some reason.

I giggled. "Come on Kazuya, let's just leave them be."

We left the hanger to the next room.

"This here is the simulation room, if you're looking to brush up on your piloting skills without it being like for real, just come here and a simulation pod should guide you through the basics."

"That could be useful."

"It already is, I learned my craft from it many years ago, although it was short lived."

We left the room and over to the far room.

"Here we are in the engine room…the most vital part of the ship and extremely essential to the crew's survival."

"So if this engine room went down, we would be stuck?" he asked.

"Yeah and if it's during the middle of a battle, it's even worse. At least it's watched over by our engineer."

A woman walked towards us. "I'm more than just an engineer you know." She said.

"I know that, I was just giving Kazuya here the basics, tour standards and all that." I replied.

"Oh…are you the new recruit?"

"Yes, I am Kazuya." He replied.

She nodded. "I'm Maria Steline, I am also a resident expert on Chrono String Maintenance."

Ahhh Chrono Strings, one of the reasons why the Moon Angel Wing was victorious over the Val-Fasc, besides me of course.

"Anyways, we'll probably be in the way if we stand here too long." I said. "Shall we go?"

"Yeah, let's move on." Kazuya replied.

Our next stop was another room next to the potion room.

"This is the warehouse, any orders or reserves that arrive are stored here, it's mostly components for the frames but they have other products contained in these metal boxes. That's pretty much it…I guess."

"Are you getting bored of doing the tour?" he asked.

"Absolutely not, even though I've had to do this a few times before with the girls. Speaking of which, our next stop is the potion room, this way."

We left the warehouse and walked to the door next to it and I tapped on the bell button. "Who is it?" I heard Kahlua ask.

"Hi Kahlua." I replied. "It's only me and Kazuya, we're here as you asked of us."

"Oh good… come on in."

I opened the door to see Apricot, Nano, Kahlua and Mimolette.

"So Kazuya, how are you enjoying the tour?" Apricot asked.

"I'm learning my way around it so far, thanks to Arnold." He replied.

"Oh yes, Arnold's tours are fun." Nano added with a smirk.

"That's because you kept chasing me around the entire ship when I was giving you the tour." I sighed. "All because you secretly slapped something red on my back and thought of it as a laser."

"Aww come on, it was funny for just a little bit."

"Now Kazuya." Kahlua said. "I wanna introduce to you another member of the team. Mimolette, please?"

"Sure thing." He replied before he spat out a soft gum shaped bottle and Kahlua gulped it down.

She then began to transform with her hair going from blonde to purple and her umm…assets being brought forward a little bit. The rest of her though was exactly the same. I had to stand well back, I didn't wanna get involved in this again.

"What do you think, Kazuya?" she asked in a more assertive manner.

"Huh?" He asked. "What happened? Where's Kahlua?"

"I am Tequila Marjoram. You could say that I am the alternate personality of Kahlua."

"Kahlua changes into Tequila whenever she drinks or sniffs alcohol." Apricot explained.

Tequila then moved closer to Kazuya. "Hmm, you look cute."

"Kazuya, I apologise in advance." I said. "I should've warned you about this…"

Tequila looked at me. "Do you wish to get involved too?"

"N-n-n-no, not like that. You already know that I'm spoken."

Apricot then made the save by stepping in between Kazuya and Tequila and brings Kazuya away from her which surprised me since she just made contact with a male but doesn't realize it.

"Anyways. We better continue the tour before it gets a little out of hand." I said, grabbing Kazuya and leaving the room in a hurry. "Sorry about that, Kazuya, let's go here."

We walked into the middle room.

"This is the infirmary, if you have any health problems, you just come here and the doctor will try his best to help."

"Hello Arnold." The doctor greeted as Nano walked in. "You're looking well."

"I sure am, doc."

"And who is this?"

"That's Kazuya." Nano answered. "He's joining our angel wing today."

"Ah, well hello Kazuya, I'm Doctor Mordent. I specialize in researching on nanomachines as well as tending to anyone who's injured and Nano works with me sometimes."

"By the way, how is your sugar level, Arnold?" Nano asked.

"I'm doing my best to keep it at a good level since Milfie isn't with me." I sighed.

Nano could tell by the way I sighed. "Don't feel down. You'll see her again soon."

"Don't worry about me, Nano. I'm a strong man…anyways, let's continue, Kazuya."

"Okay, got it." He replied.

We left the infirmary and took the elevator back up to the first floor and walked to the big room, if that could be called a room.

"This is the big park, what do you think?"

"Incredible, how is this even possible?" he asked in a shock.

"It's all in the power of Lost Technology my friend." I laughed. "If you're lucky, we may have a picnic here one day."

"A picnic?"

"Yeah, Milfie used to plan picnics a lot when she was on the Elsior, all of which took place in the viewing park, but this one is much better, because it's bigger."

"Is there anywhere else?"

"Yeah, there is a room I didn't show earlier, it's this way."

We walked to the cafeteria and it was mostly empty, apart from the kitchen area.

"Here we have the cafeteria, it's often watched over by our sole chef and I think he's in here, somewhere."

"Tch, I'm right here." I heard a voice reply by the counter.

"Oops, my bad."

Kazuya gasped slightly. "Wait a minute, I know you."

"And I know you too…if it isn't Kazuya."

"And if it isn't Lunti, I can't believe you're on the Luxiole."

"And I can't believe that you're joining the Angel Wing, we gotta catch up sometime."

"As soon as this tour is over, I'll make sure that we do."

"Great, look forward to it. Don't get too crazy around here."

"I'm sure that he won't." I intervened. "Because I'm the Angel Wing leader after all."

We left the cafeteria and took the elevator to the top floor and walked into a room.

"This is the briefing room, just like the hanger, you'll get used to this room a lot since there's a going to be quite a few battles ahead and we often group here before a battle occurs."

"So if there's an emergency, I have to come here right away?" he asked.

"Yep and it's Tact who gives us the orders during the briefing and he's gotten very good at it for the past several years."

"So is that the whole ship?"

"It looks like it, we better go to the bridge and let Tact know."

We left and walked to the bridge to find Tact speaking to Lester on a big screen.

"Hey Tact, we're back." I said.

"Hey there Arnold and Kazuya, what do you think?" he asked.

"I like this ship already." Kazuya praised.

"Well if it isn't Arnold." I heard Lester say. "Anyways Tact, just to let you know that the Elsior has returned home to EDEN."

"And how's it going between you and Almo?" Tact asked.

Lester didn't seem pleased. "Tact?! What have I told you about mentioning that?!"

"It was just a joke…anyways, Kazuya, this is Lester and Almo, they command the Elsior."

"My old home ship." I added. "So many memories were made."

Then Chitose appeared on the screen. "Oh, hello Arnold."

"Hi Chitose, you and Clayton doing well?"

Chitose blushed. "Yes…he and I are really happy to be on the same ship, but that isn't why I came here to the Elsior's bridge. I wanted to see how Kazuya was doing."

"In any case, Kazuya, I'll need to speak with you in my office." Tact told him. "Arnold, your job as tour guide is over, you can return to your room now."

"Got it Tact, I'll leave Kazuya in your hands. See you Lester, Almo and Chitose."

I left the bridge and took the elevator to the third floor and walked over to my room. I remembered when I had to make do with the guest room on the Elsior. But on this ship, this room was mine, all mine.

My room had a welcoming feel but with some attitude and humour on the side. I had a few photo frames hanged up, nearly all of which were memories with the six girls, there were some others as well. One frame I picked up was a photo of me holding Milfie's hand with her engagement ring on it.

"Soon…I'll be able to hold her hand again and love her like I always have."

Just then, a beep went off on my uniform jacket.

"Arnold, please report to the bridge immediately." Coco said.

Well I had to leave the memories alone for now, so I left my room and made my way to the bridge where Kazuya and Tact were waiting.

"We just received a transmission request from an unaffiliated ship." Coco explained.

"Open a channel, Coco." Tact replied.

An image of a female person appeared on the big screen. I hadn't seen her before, but she had light red hair with lavender hairpins on top and her outfit made her look like something out of an action movie in a way.

"Attention Luxiole!" she exclaimed. "I am Anise Azeat! The great treasure hunter!"

"Great treasure hunter?" I asked. "Never heard of you."

"I demand that you all hand over your valuables or be prepared to be shot down."

I then decided to have a bit of fun with her. "Well blow me down." I remarked in a space pirate accent. "If thar'll be invading this space, you must know that we pirates of the seven seas have no treasure 'ere, yarr!"

Anise didn't seem impressed. "Are you trying to make fun of me?!"

"Yarr matey, this pirate ain't insulting yer, just wondering if you want my pieces of eight or if you just wanna walk the plank."

Kazuya and Tact couldn't contain their laughter, Anise was getting irritated however.

"Grrr! Get ready to be shot down! I'll show you what a space pirate is!" she then cut the transmission.

Tact sighed. "Seems like NEUE still has its problems, even after the peaceful negotiations with EDEN were made."

"So what do we do now?" Kazuya asked.

"I think it's time for you to have a first-hand experience of combat against Anise's vessel. Let's get the Angel Wing here."

Coco sent a message and in the briefing room, Apricot, Nano and Kahlua arrived with Kazuya beside me.

"So here's the situation." I said to them. "We've encountered a space pirate and we have been threatened. Tact believes that this is a good chance for Kazuya here to get some combat experience."

"Well we have plenty of combat experience." Kahlua replied. "So Kazuya, let us assure you that we will help you in the upcoming fight."

"Thanks." Kazuya replied. "So what do I do?"

Tact then walked in. "Allow me to answer that one." He said. "Kazuya, you are to merge your frame called the Braveheart with one of the girls Emblem Frames. That alone should be more than enough to damage the enemy vessel and force it to retreat."

"In that case, I'll watch over your combat performance." I added. "Let's get to the hanger, group."

We left the briefing room and got to the hanger where Kazuya walked to the small frame, that was the Braveheart and he got inside it. The other girls stood by their frames and they were okay with whoever Kazuya picked to merge his frame with.

Kazuya picked Apricot's Cross Caliber to merge with, the most well-rounded frame with its special attack, Hyper Blaster which was similar to the Lucky Star's Hyper Cannon and they flew out when the hanger door sides opened. It was battle time and all I could do was watch Kazuya in action with Apricot whilst Nano and Kahlua watched with me.

Eventually, they encountered Anise's space vessel and soon did enough damage, forcing it to retreat, take that so called great treasure hunter. The frames returned to the hanger and I was very impressed with how Kazuya handled himself.

"Very well done, Kazuya." I praised. "For your first time, you did a pretty good job out there."

"Thanks Arnold." He replied. "I think a bit of your command rubbed off on me."

I giggled. "Well if you keep that up, you're gonna go a long way as an Angel Wing member."

"Kazuya, thank you for choosing me." Apricot said. "You were great out there."

Tact then arrived. "Well done Kazuya. Rico, we should prepare a victory celebration."

Apricot gasped happily. "Yeah! Great idea, I'll start the preparations." She then rushed out of the hanger.

"This also concludes our survey mission." Tact added. "We can take a breather for now."

I sighed with a smile. "Good, I haven't had much of a chance to rest yet. I'll see you lot again soon."

I left the hanger and went back to my room, all I needed was my king-size bed. Finally, a chance to sleep and dream for the time being.

My sleep was interrupted when I heard a beep outside my door. I had forgotten there would be a victory celebration, so I left my room to find Nano standing outside.

"Arnold, we're having our victory celebration in the cafeteria, you gotta come with me." She said.

"Mind if I go later?" I asked. "I'm still quite tired."

She began to show a smirk. "How about I chase you around the entire ship again?"

I sighed. "Very well, I'm coming along now."

We left and headed to the cafeteria where there were a few desserts on display and Kazuya was in a chef outfit, I almost forgot that he used to do that. Tact was present along with Apricot and Kahlua and the rest of the ship's crew.

"Attention everyone." Tact said. "I would like to congratulate you all on finishing the Luxiole's survey mission. I also wish to congratulate Kazuya on his first successful battle."

"Thank you." Kazuya replied who felt taken back by all the praise.

"Mmm, these desserts look like high quality." I commented, grabbing a slice of a cherry cake and putting it on a plate.

Kahlua grabbed a slice of another cake and after eating it, she began to feel a little drowsy.

"Uh oh." Apricot said. "She just ate a cake that was made with brandy."

She then transformed into Tequila and she appeared to be a little drunk. I had noticed that Apricot was looking at Kazuya for some time and I clicked my fingers to snap her out of her trance.

"What's up, you were kind of out of it." I said to her.

Apricot blinked. "Oh I was just thinking that the flavour of the sweets made it a bit hard for me to concentrate."

"I must say, Kazuya." Coco said. "Your cooking skills are almost like Milfie's."

"Is that a compliment?" Kazuya asked.

"Much more than that, I assure you." I answered, before I noticed that Apricot had touched him by mistake. I was fearing the worst, but for some reason it didn't happen.

"Huh, what's wrong Arnold?" Apricot asked.

"You're able to make contact with him without a problem, why is that?"

"Oh I think it's because he shares the same fragrance as Milfie, due to having a hobby in making desserts."

I looked at Kazuya and it looked like he felt happy to be special to her, but also a little down, thinking that he's a replacement for Milfie. I thought no more of it and we got back to enjoying the celebration.


	3. Unexpected Turn Of Events

**StevieBond: New chapter and I like what I have, even though it wasn't easy.**

 **Arnold: No one said it was going to be easy for you, right?**

 **StevieBond: Hey I like a challenge, nothing more.**

 **Kazuya: Anyways, there is so much more to come after this, much more.**

 **StevieBond: Definitely, so enjoy reading the story, folks.**

* * *

Unexpected Turn of Events

The next day followed and I was in my room, checking over the desert eagle pistol that I was still in possession of, you never know when there would be a ship takeover or not.

Suddenly, beeps went off around the ship, it was time for battle I guess. I left my room with the girls and hurried to the briefing room where Tact and Kazuya were waiting.

"Angels, we have a group of enemy ships approaching towards us and they are jamming our communications, therefore I cannot give you orders out on the battleground."

"That means you're gonna need me to be out there, right?" I asked.

"Correct, you'll lead the Angel Wing as it is your duty. Coco has already run a scan and there are no life forms detected on the enemy ships."

"Typical automated ships, at least they're easy to predict and shoot down. That means we can go all out without holding back."

"Get to the hanger and prepare for combat."

"Will do… come on Kazuya, you're going to see me in action for the first time."

We rushed to the hanger and got into our frames. Kazuya had to choose which frame to merge with. This time he went for Nano's First Aider, the only frame with two specials. Needle Fletchet and Repair Wave which worked the same say as Vanilla's Harvester.

We flew out of the hanger and out on the open space, I checked my radar to note that there were six destroyers and two cruisers, our objective was to eliminate the fleet, simple yet effective.

"Remember angels, if it gets too much for any of you out there, stay close to me." I reminded them.

"We'll be okay Arnold." Nano replied on my screen. "At least you all have me for repairs."

It was battle time and it felt good to be piloting my frame again. My frame carried the same offensive capabilities as before but it did get a reliability upgrade. The first destroyer was in sight and I took it out with my dual miniguns, a second one was close and I released my heat seeker missiles and more than enough were able to hit the target, destroying that one.

I did a quick radar check to see the others were doing fine, Nano, Apricot and Kahlua each took out a destroyer. I wiped out a third destroyer, just the cruisers remain. Then my spirit level peaked, a big smile went on my face as it was time for the drill.

"Okay Kazuya, here's my special in action…" I turned my frame to a cruiser. "SPIKE DRIVER!"

I charged my frame right at the cruiser as my big drill whirled into motion and it effectively tore the cruiser in half, causing it to explode. The others all took care of the other cruiser, there were no targets left.

"All targets destroyed." Coco said on my screen. "Great work Angels."

"Just like old times, eh?" Tact asked.

"Yeah, I guess so." I replied. "Angels, we're coming back to the ship."

We flew back to the hanger and got out of our frames, it felt good to be out on the battlefield after a long time. The Angels all did impressively well too, we went back to the bridge.

"Tact, the Angel Wing is back." I said.

"Good work everyone, you haven't lost your touch." Tact replied. "What's the situation, Coco?"

"I'm still unable to contact Seldar, eliminating the automated fleet doesn't seem to have worked." She replied before a beep went off. "Oh wait, I'm getting an emergency transmission from ABSOLUTE."

"Put it on screen and open a channel."

An image appeared on the big screen and my heart skipped a beat.

"Milfie!" I exclaimed. "So happy to see you my love."

"Arnold!" she replied. "I'm sorry but this is an emergency."

"Go ahead, Milfie." Tact said.

"I've come to warn you that the Central Globe is under attack, but I have no idea who's behind it. Forte may be able to help out if you hurry to Seldar."

"Central Globe, isn't that where the heart of ABSOLUTE is?" I asked.

"That will be enough…" I heard a sly voice on the screen.

Suddenly, a big shaped skeleton claw grabbed Milfie and the footage was cut off.

"EEEEEEEEEEK!" I heard her scream before the transmission went static.

"MILFIE!" I yelled, I was in a state of shock that happened just like that.

"Coco, re-establish contact!" Tact said.

"I'm unable to, the connection keeps failing." Coco replied. "It looks like the transmission from ABSOLUTE has been cut off."

"Milfie…" Apricot said in a sad tone. "…my sister."

"Don't worry you both." Tact said to me and her. "Milfie will be safe as the EDEN fleet can respond to any threat inside ABSOLUTE. She appeared to mention Forte as well being at Seldar, something must be happening there as well."

I had to regain my composure, no matter how hard it was for me right now. "Why would there be something going on in Seldar?"

"Cause the Chrono Gate at NEUE is located near Seldar and that only complicates matters."

Apricot sniffed. "Milfie…"

"Angel Wing, I advise you all to take a break. Kazuya, come with me to my office."

"Okay Tact." Kazuya replied.

The rest of us left the bridge and I went to my room and so did Apricot, I could tell that she would need time alone and I was the same. I was still in shock, who or what kind of heartless creature in the whole wide galaxy would wanna kidnap Milfie?

I heard a beep go off outside my room. "Yes?"

"Are you okay in there?" Apricot asked. "Cause I wanna speak to you."

"Sure thing, I'll come on out."

I left my room and walked with Apricot to the centre room with the benches. We often sat here and talked about many things, mostly about Milfie and we often smiled about it. But this time, we were both distraught at what we just saw and heard. But Tact was right, Milfie and I had faced far much worse situations than being kidnapped and EDEN's fleet is one of the best.

A while later, Kazuya walked on by and sat by us. "Cheer up Rico." He said. "I'm sure Milfie is safe."

That didn't seem to work, Apricot was beginning to shed a few tears and I was not far off. I could tell that he was struggling to cheer her up.

"I think Kazuya has a good point." I said glumly. "I'm sure everything will be okay in the end as it always has."

"Arnold, if I may say something." He looked at me. "You're taking this very well."

"It's because I already knew the possible dangers that Milfie would face when she became a gate keeper." I looked down. "There was always a chance that something like that would happen, even if I didn't want to believe it."

Apricot began to feel sleepy and she rested her head on Kazuya's shoulder. I think the stress and anxiety probably exhausted her. "Milfie…" she muttered.

"She's dreaming about her sister I think." I said quietly. "It reminds me of how Milfie sometimes bakes desserts during her studies with the dimension gates."

"I can't move…" Kazuya said and he was right, if he moved, he would wake her up.

Then Kahlua and Nano turned up. "Hi there you three." Nano greeted happily.

"Shhh." I said. "She's sleeping."

"Ahhh, isn't that cute?" Kahlua teased. "Rico likes you already, Kazuya."

"And are you feeling okay?" Nano asked me.

"I've been better." I replied. "But as I said before, you don't need to worry about me, as leader of the group I can't let myself be weak in the eyes of our enemies."

Kahlua nodded. "That may be true, but we want to help you as well. We know how much Milfie means to you and Rico."

I smiled. "Thanks girls."

Apricot then turned and hugged me, still daydreaming about her sister, only to then wake up and realize that it's me she's hugging.

Kazuya gasped, he knew what was going to happen…but it didn't.

"Sorry Arnold." Apricot apologised. "I thought you were my sister."

"Wait a minute…" he said. "…Rico didn't throw you in the air when she touched you, how come?"

"Well, you could say that I am a special case. But in a more accurate way, I think it's that…because I'm engaged to her sister and that Apricot here tends to think of me as a big brother, she trusts me completely."

"It's true." She added. "He's our leader but he's also like a big brother to me, a big brother that I never had."

I blushed a little bit.

"Anyways, you're looking better now." Kazuya said.

Apricot smiled. "Yeah, I'm okay now. Thanks for trying to cheer me up, Kazuya."

"It's alright."

"And you're right Arnold, I'll believe in my sister's luck and hope for the best. You should as well."

I smiled. "Oh I will always believe in Milfie's luck, speaking of which, let's have a picnic to lift our spirits up."

"YAY!"

"To the viewing park!" I said in my hero voice, glad that my humour is back too.

* * *

A day has passed after we had our picnic and we felt much better. It was a quiet late morning, only to then be called to the bridge by Tact, so we rushed over to where Tact was waiting.

"Angel Wing, reporting." I said. "Any updates?"

"We just received a transmission…I think you all need to see this." He replied sadly.

"Playing transmission." Coco said.

An image of Forte appeared on screen, well this just got more awkward.

"Attention everyone on the Luxiole, I announce today that Seldar will now be taken over by me and my forces." Forte declared. "The royal family is now under my custody and a new order will be established. I warn you, any attempt to show resistance will be met with force. End transmission."

I was stunned and couldn't believe my ears at what I just heard. "No way." I dismissed. "Was that really Forte?"

"I can confirm that the message was indeed from Forte, but I have little information to conclude what's going on." Tact replied. "Judging by those enemy ships from before as well as the lack of communications from Seldar and ASBOLUTE, I can only sum up that a coup d'état has been formed. But our destination is still Seldar as planned."

"Tact, that reminds me." Apricot said. "I was at the engine room with Maria earlier and she says that we don't have enough resources to make the trip."

"We also have reports of dwindling supplies on-board and this is because of your laziness with the paperwork." Coco said.

Tact sighed. "Alright, I'll take responsibility on this matter. Coco, use my personal code to send a transmission to a certain frequency."

"Understood." She sent it and then she got a reply back, requesting a channel.

An image appeared on screen…and it was Mint Blamanche!

"Hi Tact, you requested me?" she asked. "Oh hi Arnold, long time no speak."

I smiled. "Hi there Mint, it has been a while since you became Branch Manager."

"Hi Mint, we are in need of supplies for the Luxiole." Tact said.

"Then I will help for sure." Mint replied. "I heard of the transmission from earlier, please send me the details as I like to know more."

"I have sent the coordinates of where we are." Coco said.

"Thanks, then here are the coordinates for the rendezvous point."

Tact then turned to us. "Angel Wing, I would like you all to help out and catalogue what we need on the Luxiole before we arrive at our destination."

"You got it Tact, we'll get started right away." I replied. "See you again, Mint."

We left the bridge and we split up to make the process easier. I took care of the supplies needed in the hanger and the engineers requested that we needed spare armour plates and ammo crates, due to my frame's miniguns having bullets.

Once the supply situation was taken care of, I grabbed the angel member's reports via papers and brought them to Tact on the bridge. "Here you go, Tact. Our supply report is done."

"Good work, Arnold. Now to send the transmission." He replied. "And for now, we wait…"

But we didn't have to wait for long, as a space shuttle soon approached the Luxiole, requesting permission to dock inside. I was very impressed that it didn't take long for supplies to arrive. Tact seemed to have came to that idea as well.

Suddenly, sirens went across the entire ship, a screen displayed a few security guards being knocked down and a girl in a uniform who tore her outfit away, revealing herself to be Anise, the space pirate we dealt with earlier, she threw a knife at the security camera, cutting the footage off.

"Damn!" Tact said. "She appears to have infiltrated our ship and disabled the security system. Arnold, explore the ship and apprehend her as soon as possible. Use force if necessary."

"I'm going now Tact." I replied before I rushed out of the bridge and I notified the other angel wing members to be on the lookout for Anise.

It was then that I received a call from Kazuya who was down in the engine room where Maria was tied up. I rushed over to see the other angels and I untied Maria who explained that Anise had tampered with the engine before telling us that she was going to the hanger. We left the engine room immediately with me running faster than the others with Nano not far behind.

When I got to the hanger, Anise was at the loading dock and was about to move closer to the Braveheart frame. I didn't want to do this, but I had to take a drastic measure.

"Not another step!" I exclaimed, pulling out my desert eagle pistol at her.

She turned around to see me holding my gun. "Wait…you're carrying a weapon?"

"You're god damn right!" I smirked, I always wanted to say that line.

"But I thought angel wing members weren't allowed to carry firearms."

"That's rich, coming from a space pirate that doesn't play by the rules." I put on my serious face. "Now if you take one more step towards that Braveheart, I will pull the trigger."

"Gah!" Anise was frustrated, she knew I had her cornered and it wouldn't be long before the security would arrive. "You would dare to shoot a girl?"

"Well I took one out with my big drill many years ago one time."

"Shut it, I don't have time to listen to your stories…if you shoot me down, my boss will not hesitate to kill your friends!"

I blinked. "Your boss…you mean you're not working alone?"

"No and I'm doing this for a good reason you know."

"And what reason might that be and why resort to stealing the frame which is what I think you were going to do."

"I'm not telling you…now you better let me go if you wanna see your love again."

"Milfie…don't toy with me! How do you know about that too?"

"We're coming, Arnold!" I heard Nano exclaim as she ran up towards her.

"Time for me to go!" Anise yelled as she threw out a smoke bomb.

*BANG*

I fired my weapon, only for the bullet to hit the smoke bomb, creating a huge amount of smoke around me. I had to move away from the smoke until it faded away. Moments later, I noticed that Anise was inside Braveheart and she flew out of the hanger just before the doors were closed by Kazuya.

"Dammit, she got away!" Tequila moaned.

"Arnold, are you okay?" Apricot asked.

"Cough, cough!" I replied. "It's okay, it's just normal smoke…I can't believe I pulled the trigger, only for it to hit the smoke bomb. I feel really stupid!"

"I'm sorry I didn't get to the hanger doors in time." Kazuya sighed.

"It's alright." I assured. "We'll get it back…for now, let's go to the bridge and let Tact know what's happened."

We went up to the bridge and I explained what had happened.

"I'm sorry to hear that, I take full responsibility for this defeat." He said.

"But why just you?" I asked.

"Because it's been nothing but peaceful for four years and I've gotten too used to the calm atmosphere."

Moments later, the actual supply ship appeared out of Chrono drive and boarded the hanger, now our supplies for the ship had really arrived. I was even more surprised that Mint herself was on the ship and she met us in the tea lounge.

"Nice to see the Angel Wing together." She commented, gaining our attention.

"It's all thanks to my leadership of the group." I replied before I gave Mint a friendly hug. "Have a seat here."

"Thank you, Arnold."

She sat with us whilst Tact explained the situation.

"I see, well I can assure you that I am familiar with Anise and I know the location of where she operates."

"Wow, you do have your sources." I replied.

"But if I may confess, I was the one who sold a shuttle ship to Anise that she used to steal the Braveheart."

"Huh?!" Tact exclaimed. "But why?"

"It's because Anise is from a legitimate group of treasure hunters, but I have been regretting that transaction since she has engaged in acts of piracy."

A beep went off on Tact's uniform.

"Tact, the repairs in the engine room have been completed." Coco said. "Resupplying will take 20 minutes before we can enter Chrono Drive."

"Got it, thanks Coco." Tact replied, ending the call. "Alright angels, the meeting is over."

"Understood." I replied as we left the lounge with Mint asking for Kazuya's attention.

Later on, after the resupplying was finished, we received coordinates of Anise's hideout and we were on standby for deployment. As I got into my frame and flew out, I saw a laser fire on a shuttle, exploding into pieces and revealing the Braveheart that was merged with an Emblem frame I hadn't seen before.

"Arnold, I've been ordered to pilot a shuttle and get a hold of the Braveheart." Kazuya said on my screen. "Keep me safe until I get there."

"Roger Kazuya." I replied.

Suddenly another laser fired but the Luxiole got in the way and took the attack, it almost hit the bridge part, I wondered if Tact was okay after that blast.

As Kazuya was able to get to the merged frame and brought it back to the hanger with Anise, Coco then appeared on my screen.

"Arnold, Tact Mayers has fallen down hard as the laser hit the bridge, his head has been cut and will need medical attention." She explained. "Once again, you are to command the upcoming battle, please be careful out there."

"Damn…understood." I replied. "Kazuya, are you ready yet?"

His face appeared on my screen. "I'm here and inside the Braveheart, I've merged it with Anise's Emblem Frame and she calls it the Relic Raider."

"Alright Angels, let's get ready to go. We're about to enter a battle…wait is Anise fighting alongside us?"

Then speak of the devil, her face appeared. "Yeah, I want payback for when Dieta destroyed the shuttle I borrowed from Mint."

"Dieta, is that who your boss is?"

"Was…but not anymore, anyways we can't waste time here, those ships are about to face us."

"Okay okay…let's have a look at the radar." I pulled up the map on our screens. "There are eight destroyers and two cruisers and this huge battleship here."

"The Dieta Dist." Anise said. "That's Dieta's flagship."

"Hmm, that flagship could be a major problem for all of us. Our objective is to wipe out the Dieta Dist. That should cause the other ships to retreat, let's engage!"

The girls and Kazuya nodded and the battle started. We took out the destroyers and a cruiser on our left so there would be some breathing room. The enemy flagship began to start moving but at a slow pace.

"Here I go…" I heard Anise say. "GENOCIDE BOMBER!"

A small pink sphere was released from her frame and it engulfed the entire flagship.

"Ha ha ha!" she laughed. "How do you like that, Dieta?"

"To think I enlisted you in the first place!" I heard Dieta exclaim. "I will return!"

"Enemy flagship retreating, other ships are retreating as well." I said. "Let us withdraw and return to the Luxiole."

We boarded our frames in the hanger and Nano went off quickly to treat Tact for injuries in the infirmary whilst Anise was taken into custody by security.


	4. Nanomachine Turmoil

**StevieBond: New chapter and it's much shorter than the last one, sorry about that.**

 **Kazuya: Why apologise for a shorter chapter, I like those the best.**

 **Arnold: I think it's to do with pacing and it varies, right?**

 **StevieBond: See, Arnold is exactly right. My pacing can be quite off but I can adjust that in the chapters to come, enjoy folks.**

* * *

Nanomachine Turmoil

At the Piroti on the third floor where our rooms are, we were all together with Tact who had recovered from his injury and we looked at Anise who felt sorry for herself.

"So Anise." Tact said. "Mind if we ask you a few questions?"

Anise seemed confused. "Wait, why am I being interrogated in what looks like a picnic?"

"Well if you wanna try this cake, you better answer." I remarked. "Now explain why you stole the Braveheart."

Anise sighed. "Dieta, my former boss, offered me a huge sum of money if I had brought her the Braveheart. But the reason why she wanted it, I don't have a clue."

Tequila made a slight groan. "I am aware of Dieta and what she can do." She said. "She and I used to go to the same institution back on my home world."

Mint then walked in.

"Please Mint, can I borrow another shuttle?" Anise pleaded.

"Another one?" Mint asked. "May I remind you of the string of bad credit you have, but then again, you can't work off the debt if you don't have a ship of your own."

"I have an idea." Tact said. "Due to you having an Emblem Frame and with the way you handled yourself in combat, why don't you temporarily join the Rune Angel Wing?"

Anise gasped in shock.

"What a great idea Tact." Mint praised. "That way she can work towards paying off her debt and it will allow Arnold here to keep tabs on her. Let's go write up a contract now."

"Alright, Mint, let's go."

Mint and Tact left us, leaving Anise who was still in shock and with me looking smug.

"I hope you're ready for the way I train, Anise, because I'm gonna train you as angel wing member hard."

At the hanger, a shuttle was ready to go and we had to say our goodbyes to Mint who had to return to her corporation department.

"Take care of yourself Arnold, continue to lead proudly." Mint said.

"I will…thank you Mint." I replied before giving her a farewell hug.

Tact said his farewell to her and Mint boarded the shuttle and out it flew.

Sometime later, we carried on with our destination towards Seldar and we were on the bridge with Tact. At this point, Nano had begun hanging out with Anise after I heard that Anise had saved Nano from falling from a far height whilst trying to stop her stealing the Braveheart earlier.

"Reports show that there are 200 ships waiting for us." Coco said.

"Wait what!?" I exclaimed.

"The Luxiole will be on high alert." Tact said. "Be ready for anything."

"Incoming transmission from the enemy flagship." Coco said, bringing up an image on the screen.

"Hello again." It was Forte again. "How expected of you to turn up, Tact."

"Well you did encourage us to come here." Tact replied.

"I arranged this fleet as a way to welcome you but even so, I'm surprised that you've showed up without reinforcements."

Tact was beginning to feel irritated. "Who am I really speaking to?"

Forte laughed. "It is the real me, Tact."

"What BS!" I intervened. "The Angel Wing that I grew up with would never do something like this."

"Calm yourself, Arnold." Tact said. "Now Forte, why have you orchestrated the coup?"

"Well let me explain." Forte replied. "With the technologies that EDEN has shared, NEUE is still taking too long to have it integrated into their lives. Since I've grown tired of their slow to accept nature, I have decided that it would be easier if EDEN is to take control of NEUE's growth and stimulate its progress, even if it has to be by force."

"But why do this?"

"I shall not explain myself any further, prepare yourself because I won't be holding back."

The transmission ended, I had a very bad feeling about this. Suddenly, the Luxiole was under attack. Due to Tact's quick thinking, we were able to enter Chrono Drive and barely escape from Seldar. As the Chrono Drive ended, we were in open space with no enemies detected, we were safe for now.

We were ordered to the briefing room except for Nano who was called to the infirmary to treat the crew members for injuries.

"Alright angels, I would like you to suggest the next course of action." Tact said.

"How about we request allies from Magiic?" Anise suggested.

We came to an agreement since Magiic was another planet in NEUE like Seldar that had a strong fleet around their domain of the galaxy.

"Coco, send coordinates for planet Magiic."

"Tact, please report to the infirmary, there's an emergency!" Coco replied.

"We better go." I said.

We rushed out of the briefing room and down to the infirmary to find the crew members gathered around…Nano who had fallen on her back.

"What happened here?" I asked.

"Nano collapsed whilst she was treating the crew." Maria explained.

"She's unconscious." Doctor Mordent said. "I am not sure why, but it was perhaps due to her over excessive usage of her nanomachines."

"That doesn't sound good at all." I replied.

"It's much worse since all of her reserves are gone, if she cannot recover from this, she will most likely die or in this case, lose her memories."

"Could we contact Vanilla?" Apricot asked. "She was the one who discovered Nano and her nanomachines will help her recover."

Tact was concerned. "Vanilla is on Pico, currently researching nanomachines, but I don't think I can comply, since we have little time and not many spare supplies to make the trip there. And worse, with the thrusters not repaired, we may not make it to Magiic on time, even if Nano recovers."

"What? How could you say that?" Anise asked. "This is a serious issue here."

"If it helps, we promise to work nonstop until the engines are repaired." Maria said.

Tact sighed. "Alright, I respect the crew's wishes…" he then put in a call. "Coco, change course, we're now heading for the planet Pico and then find the quickest route to Magiic afterwards."

"Understood Tact." Coco replied back.

We left the infirmary and whilst I was worried for Nano, there was nothing any of us could do until we get to Pico.

It was several hours later when I got word that the engines were now fully repaired and we'd be entering Chrono Drive and after a while, we reached the planet of Pico where a space shuttle was arriving in the hanger.

I stood with Kazuya and Tact and when the shuttle door opened, out came Vanilla H who I had not seen since she moved to Pico.

"Hello Arnold." She greeted.

"Hey Vanilla, it's been years since I last saw you." I replied, giving her a long due hug, she had grown a bit taller as well.

She smiled. "It has been a long time…now where is Nano?"

"She's in the infirmary." Tact replied as we led the way.

Inside the infirmary, Vanilla looked over at Nano on the bed.

"I've noticed that her tail is missing." She said.

"Oh yeah, now that you mention it, her tail is gone." I replied.

"I know what's wrong with her, so I shall try to explain in simple terms. There are two kinds of nanomachines."

"Two kinds?" Kazuya asked.

"There are ones that make up her physical form and other ones where she can utilize with outside her body. Since she has overworked herself, she has put herself in a critical state where the lack of nanomachines that composes her body threatens her life."

"Is there anything that we can do?" I asked.

"The only solution that can work is to bring Nano to the lab that created her on Femto, one of the moons in Pico. But there is a problem, the facility is all automated, even though it was abandoned years ago."

"I believe that we should still go, whatever defensive systems they have, they shouldn't stop the power of the Angel Wing."

Vanilla smiled. "As always, you show everyone how much belief you have. I'm happy you're the Angel Wing's leader."

"I can agree." Tact added. "Let's get the rest of the Angel Wing in the briefing room. Vanilla, feel free to stay here with Nano."

"I will."

We left the infirmary and the rest of the angels arrived with us in the briefing room. "Angel Wing, our location is here, we have to cross a narrow space path to get to the lab on Femto moon." Tact explained, showing the map. "However, there are defensive satellites that are blocking our path, your objective is to destroy all the satellites so we can pass through unharmed."

"And since we don't have Nano with us in battle, the Luxiole will have to take care of the repairs of the frames." I added. "This is our one shot to succeed, so we have to make it count."

"I would also like to declare that based on his impressive skills since joining us, I would like Kazuya to act as second in command of the Rune Angel Wing from now on."

"Well what do you know, kid?" I said, putting my hand on Kazuya's shoulder. "Looks like you've got a bit more authority, but remember that I still have the final say on what we do out there."

"Well, I'm sure it won't be any different from before." Kazuya replied.

"Angel Wing, get ready for battle." Tact said.

I nodded and we left the room and rushed to the hangers, we were one frame down, but I was sure we would succeed. Kazuya chose Kahlua's Spell Caster to merge the Braveheart with. Her special, Hexa-Cross Break would be useful for this battle.

It was time for battle and I checked the radar to note 12 small satellites in our path. "Kazuya, Kahlua and Anise, I want you to clear the satellites on the left. Apricot and I will deal with the ones on the right." I spoke on their screens. "At the end of this isolated route, we'll group up again and wipe out the rest whilst the Luxiole follows us from behind."

We moved out and went to work, the first satellite was within range and even two frames, it had some firepower and the armour was decent, but nothing can stand the power of my miniguns and the first satellite was down. Apricot was able to finish off the second one in our path since my heat-seeker missiles found the target.

On the radar, I could see the others had no problem taking the satellites out on their end. Soon we regrouped at the end of the divided route and started mowing down the satellites one by one. I even heard the Angels special attacks being called out.

"HYPER BLASTER!"

"HEXA-CROSS BREAK!"

"GENEOCIDE BOMBER!"

There was only one satellite left and that one was all mine.

"SPIKE DRIVER!"

My drill tore right through the satellite and it exploded away.

"All satellites destroyed." I said. "Great work, Angels!"

We flew back to the hanger and the Luxiole carried on with the destination to Femto. When we got there, we had Nano on a stretcher as all of us angels along with Tact and Vanilla travelled to the lab and inside, we came across a huge chamber filled with pods.

"So this is where Nano came from." I commented.

"These tubes contain nanomachine organisms." Vanilla said. "They are similar to Nano, but she is the only one who woke up, we must place her inside a vacant chamber pod and the maintenance systems will take care of the rest."

I opened up a chamber pod door and I volunteered to put Nano's body inside, closing the door which automatically locked before switching it on and the liquid began to appear around her. We had to wait for a while, so we discussed a bit about how much had changed.

"So how have you been, Arnold?" Vanilla asked.

"I've been doing well and keeping up my sugar level." I replied.

"I remember the time when you used to have that problem, years ago. Doctor Cera would warn you about it a few times."

I giggled. "Oh yeah, remember when the Kafukafu hay fever went around the Elsior for a few days?"

"That was before I started changing for the better, thanks to Tact."

"Well, I was doing what I thought was right at the time." Tact said, rubbing his head. "I guess it was one of my hunches."

Soon, we heard a beep by the chamber pod, the process was complete, the liquid was drained and the pod door opened, Nano woke up with her eyes opened and wondered if this was all a dream.

"Am I dreaming?" she asked.

"Well, should I pinch you to find out?" I asked innocently.

"Then I'm not dreaming. What a relief."

"Nano!" Apricot exclaimed as she rushed over to hug her.

Nano wasn't quite happy. "I'm sorry that I've caused a lot of bother."

"It's alright Nano." Vanilla said. "But I must request to do a final check on you. Could you transform into something else?"

"Huh, you can do that?" Kazuya asked.

"I'm not sure if I can." Nano said.

Vanilla stood her ground. "Please do."

"Okay, I'll try…" Nano stood back and she transformed into Vanilla before transforming back to her normal self.

"Wow…I learnt something new today." I said. "Anyways, this side mission is complete, we should get back to the Luxiole and continue with our route to Magiic."

"I was just about to suggest that." Tact replied as we began to leave the lab.

Suddenly, I heard clashing of metal across the hallway before I saw a couple of human-looking drones standing in our way. I knew that was trouble coming.

"Crap!" I exclaimed. "They must've learnt we were here, we're gonna have to fight our way of this lab."

"But how, we can't fight without our frames." Apricot said.

"You could use your throwing ability to send it flying away."

"Oh…are those things male?"

"They sure are…I've got this one." I pulled out my gun. "It's time for desperate measures."

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

I fired a few shots at the drones head and it stuttered before falling to the side. "Let's get out of here!"

We rushed out of the lab with me providing cover fire before we were able to board the Luxiole and escape the Femto moon.

"Phew! That was a close call." Suddenly, sirens went off across the ship. "Awww, what now?!"

"Enemy fleet detected!" Coco said on the speakers. "All units, red alert!"

We rushed to the bridge with Tact and we saw Dieta on the big screen.

"Ah the Angel Wing." She said. "How funny to see you Anise, stuck with your former rivals on that ship."

"Easy for you to say." Anise muttered.

"Commander Mayers, I am Dieta Dist and I must laugh at your previous defeat."

"Previous defeat?" Tact asked. "What do you mean?"

"Well I can reveal that I am affiliated with Forte's forces as well. You won't be able to stop our coup."

"Not if I have anything to say about it." Tequila intervened. "We'll stop you and then put a stop to Forte's coup."

Dieta seemed displeased. "Really now? Well this time it will be different."

She cut the transmission and we walked to the briefing room. Tact showed on the map that we were at the bottom centre. The enemy fleet consisted of eight destroyers, four cruisers and Dieta Dist's flagship at the top centre.

"Angels, I'll give you the same objective as before." Tact said. "Eliminate the enemy flagship, but make sure to take out any ships that come near the Luxiole."

"Roger that Tact, we're ready to go." I replied.

"Kazuya, I want you to merge your frame with mine, I wanna pay back for you all helping me." Nano said.

"Sure Nano." Kazuya replied.

"Thanks…"

We left for the hanger and got into our frames, Kazuya merged his with Nano's and out we went. It was time for battle and we flew to the right of the map, taking care of the destroyers on that side before turning around dealing with the ones on the left that were trying to pursue the Luxiole.

The cruisers remained but that flagship was halfway towards the Luxiole, it was moving a bit faster than before, must've got a speed upgrade, what about its armour and firepower? I answered the question by flying towards it and causing some damage to Dieta's ship before Nano's frame came by with her special ready.

"NEEDLE FLETCHETTE!" She yelled as I flew my frame away.

"Enemy flagship retreating!" I exclaimed. "And the other ships are retreating already."

We flew back to the hanger and as we got out of our frames, Nano rushed over and hugged Vanilla who I then remembered became her adopted mother.

"Nano, I hope you learnt to limit the use of your nanomachines." Vanilla said.

"I promise I will." Nano replied. "Can't you also stay with us?"

"I'm sorry but I have to return to Pico, there is still too much to be done, even though I am curious about Forte's recent actions."

"Awww…"

"But when I have time, I'll be sure to play with you…you take care of the angels, Arnold."

"I will Vanilla, we'll see you again soon." I hugged Vanilla once more before we waved at her, boarding the shuttle and leaving the Luxiole.

With that side quest over, it was time to move onwards to Magiic.


	5. Dieta's Demise

**StevieBond: Here we go, the last new chapter for now, but this is now the halfway point.**

 **Kazuya: Halfway point? How much time do you spend on writing this?**

 **StevieBond: Well if I stopped, my motivation would go right out the window.**

 **Kazuya: I see...**

 **StevieBond: Anyways, this is where some of my twists will come into play, enjoy, readers.**

* * *

Dieta's Demise

The Luxiole had just exited out of Chrono Drive as we were closing towards the planet of Magiic. Kazuya was with Tact on the bridge and I was with the angels in the Piroti, discussing over fortune telling which was very familiar to me since Ranpha once told me my fortune before I piloted my frame for the first time, what an omen that was.

Kahlua was doing the fortune-telling and after Anise got hers, she felt frightened by her fortune for the future and didn't believe a word of it since it was scary in a way. Nano and Apricot had their fortunes told and they were a bit more positive. I didn't need my fortune told since I was perfectly happy with where I was right now…well almost.

Moments later, Kazuya dropped on by to see us. "Hi there, what are you all doing?"

"We're having our fortunes told." Nano replied.

"Oh Kazuya, would you like to have your fortune told?" Apricot asked.

Kazuya seemed almost convinced. "Umm sure."

He sat with us as Kahlua drew a few fortune cards on a bench.

"Well first of all, do you have a girlfriend?" she asked him.

Kazuya was almost taken back. "Uhh nope."

"What do you look for in a partner?"

"Someone that likes almost the same stuff that I do I think."

"Then who do you like the most out of us girls?"

Kazuya looked at me, I just shrugged my shoulders.

"I'm finding the questions suspicious." Kazuya said. "What are you really doing?"

Kahlua began to giggle. "Well, it was actually a trick to find out if you were interested in one of us girls."

"Well, you sure fooled me." Anise said. "But I wanna hear Kazuya's answer."

"Hold on Angels." I intervened as I looked at the windows. "I can see a spaceport."

"Oh, we must be getting close to Magiic."

"Let's get to the bridge, I'm sure Tact wants us to do something."

We walked to the bridge as soon as Kahlua put away her fortune cards in her room.

"Angel Wing, good that you're here." Tact said. "I have just made a deal with the officials in Magiic so they could share information on the coup whilst the Luxiole is being repaired."

"So what do you need us to do?" I asked.

"Well, it's going to take a while so I'm giving you Angel Wing time off the ship, you're allowed to be on the planet to relax."

"Cool!"

The Luxiole then landed on the spaceport and via the hanger walkway, we stood out of the ship and onto the metal grounds before leaving the spaceport to take in the city we were in.

"So this is the city of Magiic…oh oh oh, it's magic, you know…"

"Arnold, what are you talking about?" Kazuya asked.

I chuckled nervously. "It's a bad habit I have, I just can't help it."

"I'm feeling hungry right now." Apricot said. "Is there somewhere we can eat?"

"Yes, there's a restaurant close by." Kahlua replied. "It's this way."

We followed her to a classy restaurant and we walked on in to find a customer arguing with the manager.

"I'm telling you, the food here was poor." He complained. "I'm not coming here again."

Anise had a sneaky idea, she zoomed past the customer and grabbed his wallet, opening it to find nothing inside it.

"Aha! Just as I thought." Anise said. "This man was trying to get a free meal, because he's got no money."

The guy was not pleased. "Wha…how dare you get involved in my business, I should retaliate!"

But before he could, a surprise kick from out of nowhere sent the cheapskate flying out the door and to the outside.

"Nice shot!" I said.

We then looked to see where the kick came from and I was surprised.

"I don't believe it…Ranpha Mayers!"

"Well…Arnold!" she replied happily who was holding on to a plate of food and placed it down on a table. "I'm happy to see you, mister."

"Same to you, Ranpha." I gave her a hug. "How's married life?"

"Oh you should know that one. Tact and I will always stay married, no matter far we are from each other as we said in our vows. How about you?"

I decided to not inform her about the situation. "Milfie and I are still together, even though she's far away in ABSOLUTE."

"Excuse me." Kazuya intervened. "Are you the connection that Tact mentioned?"

"Oh hello there… why yes, I'm part of Magiic's administration thanks to being an Ambassador for EDEN. You must be the new angel wing member I've heard so much about."

"Yes, I'm Kazuya and I joined last week."

"And this is Anise." Apricot said. "She joined with us two days ago."

"Hi Ranpha, I'm very impressed with how strong your kick is." Anise complimented. "I wish I could kick that far."

Ranpha noticed one of the other angels. "Hi Kahlua, I've heard about your magic and spell casting, I've wanted to meet you for some time."

Kahlua felt a bit of pride. "Really? I am very honoured to hear that." She replied happily. "Knowing that you and Tact saved the whole galaxy in EDEN, four years ago."

"Hello ladies and gentleman." A chef spoke to us. "I would like to thank you for dealing with the customer, my staff would like to send you complimentary food, on the house."

"Wow! Thanks." Kazuya replied.

"Let's get a good place to sit." I said. "No use standing around here."

We found a seating table to cover all seven of us and I took the seat on the far left side. The complimentary food was then served and it looked tasty to me. After we had ate with Mimolette rushing to the bathroom to clear out the spicy food from his mouth, we took a moment to sink it all in before getting to a much needed discussion.

"So if I could ask, why are you able to visit me?" Ranpha asked.

"Oh, we were given free time whilst Tact sorts things out on his end." I replied.

"Well I've heard about the connection issue, has there been a reconnection to ABSOLUTE?"

"No…not yet." Apricot answered sadly.

"Don't worry, Rico. Milfie will be completely fine thanks to her luck."

"Thanks…I'll take it to heart."

"Same goes for you, Arnold. I always know how much you love her."

"Thank you, Ranpha." I replied, feeling better.

"But on a lighter topic, I'm still surprised that someone from the Marjoram family would be among the angel wing. Kazuya, does it seem like a big deal?"

"Uhh not really." Kazuya replied.

"Well, it's also because I heard that Kahlua is a top "A" class mage alongside 11 others in all of NEUE that make up the group known as the 'The Twelve'."

"The Twelve, that's all their group name is?" I asked which was ignored.

"I also heard that your recent victory against Dieta had decided who would take the seat among the twelve a few years ago."

We were surprised to learn that. To think that the acquaintance between Kahlua and Dieta goes that far back. Suddenly, I heard Mimolette scream in the kitchen.

"Sounds like trouble." I said.

We got up and ran over to the kitchen to find the place on fire and someone was in there.

"Surprise!" It was the cheapskate from earlier. "These magic stones were very useful, ta-ta!" He ran off in a hurry before I could even say anything.

"We'll try to get him." Anise said as she and Ranpha chased after him.

"Apricot and Nano, get everyone to evacuate." I said. "Kazuya and Kahlua, find Mimolette and get out of there."

They rushed inside whilst I left the kitchen, there were no fire extinguishers around here which was for some odd reason. Maybe that cheap swindler stole them in advance or something.

Once the fire from the kitchen had gone out, we were outside and Kazuya came on out and he was unharmed.

"What happened, are you okay?" Apricot asked.

"Yeah I'm fine…I hid myself in the fridge so the fire wouldn't get to me." He replied. "Where's Kahlua?"

I pointed to where Kahlua was on a stretcher with Mimolette, they had passed out moments earlier and were being treated by the ambulance team.

After calming down, we returned to the Luxiole and Ranpha came with us since she didn't like working at the restaurant anymore, not after what happened today. We walked up to the bridge to explain to Tact what happened whilst Kahlua was being cared for by Doctor Mordent in the infirmary.

"Hi there, everyone." Ranpha greeted as she walked in.

"Hello Ranpha." Coco replied. "This is a surprise."

"Well I thought it would be good to visit you all after a long time."

Tact gasped. "Ranpha…"

"Tact…my darling husband!" she exclaimed, rushing over to him.

This made him happy. "Ranpha…my honey wife!" He opened his arms and she leapt into his arms.

They were locked in a tight embrace, their love for each other was all there for anyone to see and they shared a kiss, they hadn't seen for each other for a while.

"Darling, I've missed you so much!"

"Honey, I've missed you so much too!"

"Tact…"

"Ranpha…"

I had to laugh on the inside, they're married but their vocal show of affection hadn't changed at all, they were still like the way they were all those years ago. Although I could see that Kazuya and the others were feeling awkward at the scene.

"Ahem!" I intervened. "I'm sorry to break up this reunion, but we have pressing matters right now?"

"Oops…sorry everyone." Ranpha said in a teasing way before she and Tact broke up the hug, but Ranpha chose to hold his hand, not wanting to let go. "Anyways, I would like to compliment the Rune Angel Wing for their actions at the restaurant. Arnold, you're doing an amazing job as angel wing leader like we all said you would."

"Thanks Ranpha, but I also gotta give it to Kazuya here, he's shown a lot of potential and he's second in command for many good reasons."

Suddenly, Tequila burst into the room. "Tact, Arnold and Kazuya, I need to speak to you in private."

"Alright Tequila. Everyone else, you're dismissed for now." Tact replied before looking at his wife. "I'll see you later, honey."

"Okay, I'll be around here on the ship if you need me, darling." Ranpha replied before she and the rest of the angel wing left.

Tact, Kazuya and I walked into the briefing room with Tequila.

"Kazuya, I wanna ask you first." She said. "Before I fell unconscious, what happened?"

"Well you were put in an ambulance." Kazuya replied.

She turned to me. "Arnold, how long was I out?

"Last I know, you were asleep for around an hour."

"I see…then it appears that I have been had."

"What do you mean?" Tact asked.

"I can conclude that Dieta was on Magiic at the same time we were and during the time I sleeping, Dieta has put a curse on me."

"A curse?" Kazuya asked.

"I don't know exactly what this could mean for me and for the rest for you…but that's not all. I have a really, really bad feeling that it may involve you, Arnold."

I blinked. "Me? But how can that be, I wasn't in the ambulance."

"I know you weren't, but I heard a faint word from Dieta and that she mentioned your name when she put the curse on me."

This was bad…I was already fearing the worst possible scenarios that could happen as a result of Dieta's curse, damn that vile woman!

"She was also responsible for the fire as well, she sold a few fire-imbued stones to that cheapskate and he did the deed. That's all I have in my report so to speak."

"Alright, in any case we better be prepared in case we run into Dieta again." Tact said. "You're all dismissed."

"Kazuya, I need you to come with me to my room." Tequila said and she grabbed his wrist whilst I left with them.

I walked back to my room, at least there I would be safe and it allowed me to ponder over what kind of curse it could be and how it would involve me in some way.

A while later, I was still worried about it. "No…" I said to myself. "….if that curse involves Milfie, I swear that I'll-"

A beep went off outside my door. "Yes?" I asked, snapping me out of my focus.

"Arnold, its Ranpha. We need some ideas, could you come out?" she asked.

"Uhh sure…" I left my room to see Ranpha along with Kazuya, Apricot, Nano and Anise.

"We're just thinking of what we could to help cheer up Kahlua." Kazuya explained. "She's been sleeping in her room but not before telling me that she's worried that her magic will drive everyone away from her."

"Well if you ask me, it's a little pointless." I replied. "She should know that would never happen, we're too close to let those kinds of issues get in the way."

"You're right, Arnold." Nano replied. "But still, we need to help lighten up her mood."

We were kind of stuck at that point. Suddenly a warning signal went off and I started to feel that the air around us was thinning up. Something must've broke in the air circulation system.

"Let me contact the bridge!" I exclaimed, but there was no reply. "Damn! The communications must've malfunctioned." Was this the curse that Tequila warned us about?

But before we knew it, we ended up collapsing outside Kahlua's door, only to then hear it being forced open by Kahlua, I could hear her words being chanted.

 _Spirits who dwell in demons, feast upon our combined souls and reveal to us the way to defy logic._

 _Spirits who reign over fire, answer our call and bring forth flames from the abyss of wisdom._

 _Spirits that play in water, entrust yourselves to the mystic flames and boil up briefly._

 _Spirits which dance in wind, become a raging vortex which encompasses the water vapor._

 _Spirits which sleep in earth, loan unto me a solid frame to act as my shield._

 _Spirits which inhabit the void, obey the law and assist the enforcement of my legal principle._

 _Imperium sine fine dedi!_

We suddenly regained consciousness and I caught a glimpse of Kahlua's spell and seeing all of us inside a circle that protected us before the spell faded away.

"I don't know how you did it, Kahlua." I said as I helped Ranpha up. "But you saved us and it seems the air circulation's back to normal. We owe you one big time."

But she suddenly broke down in tears. "Nooo, now that everyone has seen my magic, you all will start avoiding me!"

"What are you saying that for?" Ranpha asked. "I am absolutely amazed by your magic, you saved our lives today."

I couldn't stand aside, I hugged Kahlua so she could cheer up. "That is never going to happen, we'll always be by your side." I said to her as she accepted the hug.

"Yeah, your magic will never stop us from being your friend." Kazuya added.

Tact came on by later to check up on us and he was relieved to see us unharmed. "Angel Wing, I just got word that some of the spaceport staff were manipulated into sabotaging the comminutions and the shields whilst we were busy handling repairs."

"That must've been part of Dieta's curse." Kahlua said.

"I have more bad news as well, we also cannot make close communications, because an enemy fleet is closing in on our position. The fleet by us is positioned in a strange formation."

"Then it looks like Dieta has formed a magic seal and is using the ships to make a catalyst to inhibit magic."

"If that is the case, Magiic won't be able to assist us." Ranpha added who held on to Tact's hand tightly. "They won't be able to take action unless we get rid of this problem ourselves."

"We'll need to go to the briefing room." Tact said.

We nodded and went over there and Tact showed us a group of enemies on the map. There were six cruisers that formed a front line in front of us and six destroyers that were lined in a circle with a hexagon design around them, Dieta's flagship must be hidden inside that barrier.

Suddenly, we were called to the bridge as there was a transmission that came in.

Dieta appeared on the big screen, she had a nerve after that stunt she pulled on us.

"Attention Luxiole, I have no interest in taking over Magiic." She said. "My only wish is to wipe them out of the way."

"Dieta! Stop this now!" Kahlua pleaded which surprised Dieta.

"Oh, you and everyone else is still alive after my attempts to suffocate you?"

"That's right, your attempts to take us down has been met with failure." I replied with a hint of anger. "I have never been so pissed off than I am right now!"

"You…you will meet your part of the curse soon enough. Kahlua, you and I are going to settle the score in this battle. Be ready for my might!"

She cut the transmission, Ranpha told us that she will stand by Tact and will be wishing us the best of luck. We got to the hanger and Kazuya merged his Braveheart with Kahlua's frame who had transformed into Tequila moments earlier.

Out we flew to start the battle and I checked the map to see the six cruisers coming towards us.

"Angels, we have to get rid of these cruisers first. Then we can focus on the destroyers." I said to them.

"If we take out one of those destroyers, the magic barrier around them should cease to function." Tequila replied. "And Dieta's ship should be revealed."

I nodded as we split up to take out the cruisers. The first cruiser went down thanks to my weaponry. Nano and Anise took one down and Apricot and Kahlua eliminated another one.

Three cruisers remained and I had one in my sights, I mowed that one down and I quickly checked the others to see that the last two cruisers were gone. Now for the destroyers and we immediately took out the nearest one to us.

The magic circle suddenly disappeared and Dieta's flagship appeared in the middle as the other destroyers began to move. I then had an idea and got Tequila on my screen.

"Tequila, I know you want to settle this, but I wanna get a piece for myself."

"Alright Arnold…let me use my special first and if it's still standing, you can use yours to finish it."

"Got it."

She went first as her spirit level was maxed out. "HEXA-CROSS BREAK!" Her attack reduced Dieta's flagship to just a quarter of what was left. "She's all yours, Arnold, do it now!"

"I have her where I want her…" I positioned by frame with the Dieta Dist in my view. "…SPIKE DRIVER!"

My drill tore right through the flagship as I noticed the other destroyers were taken out by the other angels.

"Enemy flagship heavily damaged." I said. "Our work here is done."

We flew back to the Luxiole and we walked up to the bridge to see Dieta on the big screen, the room behind her was heavily damaged by our attacks. Dieta didn't seem worried at all, this made me suspicious.

"Dieta." Tequila said. "I demand to know what your curse is going to do."

"Relax." She replied. "Your part of the curse is over much to my disappointment. I am just satisfied that Arnold's part of the curse is still yet to come."

"My part of the curse? What do you mean by that? What's going to happen to me?" I asked, raising my voice.

"I shall refuse to explain, for I would rather die like this then tell you all of the curse. You won't know when and where it'll happen, but if your mentality survives it, then maybe you will see everyone again…farewell."

She cut the transmission and the enemy flagship exploded, that was the end for Dieta.

Tequila sighed, relieved that her part of the curse was over, but worried for me. What part of the curse is it? And whatever it is, how the heck am I going to go through it?

"Arnold." Ranpha said. "Don't worry about it for now, you've got everyone watching your back."

"I know Ranpha." I replied. "Thanks for clarifying that."

We gathered in the hanger and there was a shuttle ready, Ranpha had to say goodbye as her ambassador role was needed if we were going to stand up against Forte and her takeover of Seldar.

I gave Ranpha a farewell hug before she and Tact showed off their vocal love for each other again until she boarded the shuttle and left the ship. Tact gave us all a much needed break and I needed one more than the others…badly.


	6. Lily's Rushed Return

**StevieBond: Hi all, I have a new chapter and the twists are continuing for this one.**

 **Apricot: Hey, when we are gonna get a chance to say something?**

 **Nano: I wanna know how many people like cats!**

 **Kahlua: My familiar is a cat you know?**

 **Anise: Yeah, we know that already.**

 **StevieBond: You girls...anyways, enjoy reading.**

* * *

Lily's Rushed Return

I had slept throughout the rest of the day and into the next day. I had woken up then and I needed food desperately, good thing I had my emergency supplies in my room to feast on.

After a much needed intake of food and drink, I left my room and remembered back to yesterday. The curse that Dieta mentioned and that how it would involve me. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't put it aside and focus on my leadership duty.

"Morning Arnold." I heard Kahlua say who was by the benches. "Mind if we talk?"

"Yeah, I hope this is one of those curses that goes away on its own." I replied, sitting by her.

"I'm afraid it isn't as simple as that." She sighed. "The curse has been all that I could think about, but I would feel better if we don't take any chances."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, come with me to my room." She stood up. "I won't be able to remove the curse, but I may be able to find a way to help you overcome it when it begins."

"Any help I can get, I'll take." I followed to her room. "I remember Dieta mentioning about my mentality."

"I think she was referring to your mental state." She opened the door and I walked into her room.

This was only the second time I've seen her room, it had a warm feeling the moment I set foot in here, due to the floor being covered in a fluffy carpet material. In the centre was a table with her magic and spell equipment.

"Have a seat, Arnold." Mimolette said who was in the room too. "Kahlua, are you sure you want this to work?"

"It has to, otherwise when his side of the curse happens, he won't be ready to face it."

I sat down by the table and Kahlua sat on the opposite chair, grabbing a few cards.

"Now please relax, I will need to fully concentrate." She continued. "I will need your help in making this spell work."

"Wouldn't it be better for this to be in the potion room?" Mimolette asked.

"I have more than enough for what I need here." She began to chant a few words before she looked at me. "Arnold, what do you see as your mental state?"

"My mental state…" I replied. "…it's my belief in overcoming the dangers that we face."

She closed her eyes. "What is your main driving force to succeed along and with others?"

"It is my faith and courage to help and support anyone that I work closely with."

"And who is the one person that you love the most, the one you always think of, the one as your primary source for comfort whenever you are dreaming?"

I sighed. "Milfie…she means more than the galaxy to me."

She chanted several more words. "Now please close your eyes and allow me to conduct the spell."

A circle of light appeared around me as the wind began to blow around her room, I then felt a strange surge of my mental conditioning being reinforced inside my head.

 _All forces of evil that leave a curse behind_

 _Reduce the effects that attack the one's mind_

 _Allow this spell to overcome the events that meet his way_

 _So that he can be free from the bonds and see the light of day_

 _Imperium sine fine dedi!_

"Argh!" I exclaimed, this spell was hurting me in some way.

I opened my eyes a tiny bit to see that the effects of the wind had begun to fade and all of the items that were flown about had landed back in their original places. I fully opened my eyes to see that Mimolette had landed upside down on the floor.

I turned to see that Kahlua was now Tequila and she was panting slightly. "The spell has been cast…although I had to turn into Tequila in order to finish it."

"So if I may ask, what kind of spell did you use exactly?" I asked, rubbing my head.

"I casted a magic barrier inside your mind, it won't remove the curse as I told you, but it should ease the effects of it."

"I see, but why can't you remove the curse?"

"Removing the curse itself is too strong for even my magic. You will have to take care of the rest itself and once you overcome it, the curse should disappear."

"But we will find a way to compose a back up spell, just in case it doesn't work." Mimolette added. "Now could you help me back up please?"

Tequila turned back into Kahlua and giggled. "Sorry Mimo."

"Well, in some way I do feel a lot stronger, mentally." I said. "Even though it was a little painful at first."

"I apologise for that, sometimes my mental barrier spells can cause a bit of pain, but it's only temporary."

I nodded with understanding before a beep went off on my jacket. "Yeah?"

"Arnold, we're approaching the Department City for resupplies." Tact said. "Also, could you and the others report to the briefing room, we need to discuss something?"

"I got it Tact, we'll be there." I looked at Kahlua. "Are you able to come with us?"

"Yeah, spell casting doesn't wear me out often, let's go."

We left her room and walked to the briefing room with Apricot, Nano and Anise. Kazuya and Tact were waiting for us already.

"We're here Tact." I said. "Although it isn't like you to report us here during downtime."

"Yeah this isn't like me but I have something to tell you all. Kazuya, come forward."

"Yeah?" Kazuya asked.

"I wanna commend you for doing a great job as Angel Wing since you joined us at a time of crises. I am having you promoted as sub-leader of the Rune Angel Wing. A rank that was previously held by Lily who is still absent."

"Really?"

"In the event that Arnold is down and is unable to command the group, you will cover for him. I said something about you being second in command before, but this time it's for real."

"I don't know if I should feel proud, I was only doing my job."

"Nonsense." I replied. "I'm more than happy for you to lead the Angel Wing if I can't…and that may happen sooner or later." I muttered the rest to myself.

The others agreed, making him feel much prouder of himself. The Luxiole landed at the Department Ship. Last I heard it was a mobile shopping mall which was quite unique. Perhaps some time there would do me good, there might be something for me.

When we were back in the Piroti, I saw Kazuya on the bench with his eyes closed and he was mumbling about the Angel Wing and who he wanted to spend time with. I know how he feels, I was like that when I was getting to know Milfie and getting close to her and all. Tact would know the feeling too, the rest is history as they say.

Then one of the girls approached him… "Hiya Kazuya."

"Dah!" Kazuya opened his eyes and almost jumped. "Nano, don't scare me like that."

"Sorry, I just heard my name from you." She replied before looking away a little. "Say, there's an amusement park on the Department Ship. I would like to go to that instead of the shopping mall and it wouldn't be much fun on my own."

"Oh, if you want to come along, then I'll gladly join you."

"Awesome!" Nano grabbed Kazuya's wrist. "Let's go now."

I chuckled. "You two have fun now, you hear?"

The other girls arrived. "Arnold, are you coming with us to the shopping mall?" Kahlua asked.

I smiled. "I sure am girls, there may be something good for me."

"Then let's go, I hear there's a sale on clothing."

We left the Luxiole and walked on a pathway to the centre of the shopping mall. It was even bigger than I thought along the inside of this mobile place.

"Wow!" Anise exclaimed. "This is like a dream come true for me!"

"Calm down, Anise." I replied with laughter.

"Rico, wanna shop with me for clothing?" Kahlua asked.

"Yeah, I'm looking for a new pair accessories for my hair." Apricot answered. "Arnold, we'll be okay."

"Alright, you two enjoy yourselves." I said as Kahlua and Apricot walked to the clothing store.

That left just me and Anise.

"Say Arnold, there's a store that sells exploration equipment and I'm in need of some. Could you come with me and help me look?" Anise asked.

"Sure why not. Besides, I haven't been able to talk to you much since you joined the Angel Wing."

"Temporarily joined you mean?"

"Oh yeah…" I had forgotten that she temporally joined so she could pay off her debt.

"And that's something I need to talk to you about, but that can wait."

"Sure, just make sure to not be too close to me."

"Oh I understand, I am aware of your engagement to Milfie since Rico told me about it. I won't try anything stupid. But if you do the pirate talk again, I might be tempted to kick your ass."

"There won't be any of that from me, I promise you that."

She smiled at me. "Good."

We walked to an exploration store and the moment we were inside, Anise couldn't contain her fascination for the items on display.

"Oooh!" She exclaimed. "Ahhh!" She couldn't say anything else.

"Why hello there customer." The shopkeeper said. "I see you are fascinated by these products."

"I think I got to that conclusion as well." I replied on her behalf.

"Well I should like to warn you both that all of this equipment is not cheap, they are mostly expensive."

I had a look at the price tags, even with the money I earn, the numbers were shocking.

"Oh that won't be a problem." Anise said. "Because I have this." She pulled out a card. "Mint gave this to me earlier."

The shopkeeper looked at the card. "Ahhh, this is a platinum card, it allows a customer to buy anything in this store without actually paying anything."

I was baffled by what he said. "Uhhh, come again?"

Anise sighed. "It's no use explaining it, just let me buy what I need with this card and we'll be out of here."

"Fair enough."

After purchasing what she needed, we left the store and I was curious to what she bought. We had a look in the bag, she had bought a pair of binoculars, a multi-function pocket knife, a camo jacket and a smoke bomb design kit.

"Was that all you needed?" I asked.

"Yep and I have Mint's platinum card to thank for." Anise beamed with pride. "By the way, I need to talk to you about my status with the group."

"Alright, there's a café just over there. We can discuss it away from the other customers."

We walked over to the café and got a table, she ordered coffee whilst I was okay with a bottle of water for now.

"So Anise, how have you been settling in since joining our group?"

"Much better than I thought, considering the trouble I caused a few days ago."

"Yeah, you did quite a few bad things to us on the Luxiole when you infiltrated us."

"When you were holding that gun…deep down I was scared that you were really going to shoot. That's why I threw that smoke bomb when you were distracted for a split second."

"Speaking of that moment, I shot that smoke bomb, how come I did that and not at you?"

"It's because I was told of your weakness when holding a gun. When you see an object hurled at you, you aim for that instead of the main target."

"I see, who told you that flaw?"

"Dieta did who got the information about you from Forte when the coup was formed."

Now that would explain why I missed Anise when the smoke bomb went off. I can't believe Forte would tell Dieta about my main weakness, now I know why Dieta knew about me and mentioned my name when she put a curse of Kahlua.

"We should get going, I think the others may have finished their trip around the shopping mall by now."

"Yeah…by the way, I've been thinking about my place…I actually would like to stay with the Angel Wing."

We got up and left the café, I was surprised by what she said. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah…thanks to Rico and Nano, they've helped me around the ship and I've gotten to know how to be kind and all that."

"And I've only seen a bit of your frame in action, what else can you tell me about it?"

"It's the fastest of all the frames, but the armour I have isn't exactly as strong as the others."

"I see."

When we got back on the Luxiole, Apricot gave me a necklace with the word Milfie on it, she said that it was a gift she bought for me and that I should give it to Milfie whenever that chance came. I chose to keep it hidden in my room for now.

When Nano and Kazuya came back from the amusement park, we were waiting for them on the bridge.

"So, you two had a good time?" I asked as they walked in.

"Yeah, it was really fun!" Nano replied happily. "Even though I wasn't able to go on all of the rides because of my height."

"But we still had a good time." Kazuya added. "That's all."

"I've detected a familiar signal." Coco said. "Lily and her Emblem Frame are entering the area."

"I can see enemy ships in pursuit." Tact added. "Mint, can the Department Ship move?"

Mint appeared on the big screen. "I'm afraid it won't be able to move out of the way in time."

"Why not use my frame?" Anise asked. "I refused to let it go under maintenance so I can fly out there and take of the enemy as quick as possible."

"That would be very helpful, Anise." Mint replied. "Please do so immediately."

"Only on one condition. In exchange for saving the Department Ship, I demand that my contract with you is nullified."

Mint sighed. "I see no other choice in the matter. I accept your terms, Anise. Now go."

"Come on, Kazuya!" Anise grabbed Kazuya, probably down to the hanger and deploy.

We watched on the radar to see Anise's frame merged with Kazuya's Braveheart and those enemy ships were being swatted away, there were only a few so it didn't last long. The coast was clear on the map and Anise and Kazuya returned to the hanger whilst another Emblem Frame arrived in the hanger with them was stored between Nano's and Apricot's frames.

The rest of us walked down to the hanger and Anise was quite pleased with herself. "Well, that's my contract with Mint terminated, that means I can now leave at any time I want."

But before we could answer, the cockpit of the slightly damaged Emblem frame opened and out came a familiar person.

"Hello Angel Wing." She greeted.

"Hi Lily." I replied. "Good to see you back with us again." I brought Kazuya forward. "Kazuya, this is Lily C. Sherbet, she was the second to join the group and was highly recommended by Forte."

"I've heard about you Kazuya, you have done very well so far. I have returned with important information in regarding to the coup. We must go to the briefing room."

"Alright, follow me Angels."

We walked up to the briefing room where Tact was waiting. "Good to see you, Lily." He said. "Do you need a health check?"

"Is that an order?" Lily asked.

"Nah, it's only a simple check on your well-being."

"I am alright for now. I must discuss this information with you all now."

"Okay, explain the situation."

"When my scout duty with Forte was concluded, I was stationed around Seldar. Then the coup began to form and started attacking, I was able to barely escape with my Eagle Gazer."

"I see, did Forte mean what she said when she sent those transmissions?"

"Yes, I can confirm that it is fact." Lily looked down. "It pains me to know as well that Forte has the Royal Family taken as hostage. I blame myself for not being there to protect them!"

"Lily, I want you to remain focused." I said. "Is there anything else important?"

"Yes, there is another threat approaching towards Seldar. There are explosive equipped vessels known as Crust Breakers and they are en-route to Seldar. They speak of immeasurable amount of damage to the planet."

I gulped. "Good god!"

"I was able to escape because I can also reveal that Forte is taking orders from someone else and that she's had no choice but to comply to keep Seldar unharmed. I don't know who is pulling the strings, but I know that Dieta was one of the coup officers."

"I knew it!" I exclaimed. "I knew Forte would never do something like that on her own."

"Okay, the meeting is over Angels." Tact declared. "I'll need some time to sink all this information in before carrying on with our destination to Seldar, you're all dismissed."

I nodded. "Affirmative, Tact."

We left the briefing room and I went straight to my room whilst Lily asked for Kazuya's attention, looks like she was going to do one of her relationship-building exercises that she told me about one time. I didn't need one for obvious reasons so I was a free man.

The next day came and we were ordered to the briefing room.

"We have an enemy fleet blocking our path." Tact said, showing us the map. "Your objective is to wipe them out so we can carry on towards Seldar. That is all Angels, get ready to deploy."

"We're going right now." I replied.

We got to the hanger and Lily grabbed a hold of Kazuya. "Kazuya, please merge your frame with mine, I believe I can help you in this battle."

"Sure thing." He replied.

We got into our frames and we flew to the open space, the Braveheart merged with the Eagle Gazer and we were ready to fight.

I checked the map as we started the battle, there were six destroyers, six cruisers and a new enemy ship, an offensive carrier that had tough armour and a lot of fire power. It would be unwise to face that alone, we would need the whole group to take that down.

But the good thing is that with Lily now back with us, there were six of our frames in the field so we had more of a chance to win. The cruisers on the right went down first thanks to us splitting into two groups of three before we wiped out the destroyers behind them.

The cruisers and destroyers from the left were approaching towards us as the Luxiole began to move to the middle right of the map, we dealt with those four ships easily.

"This is the Eagle Gazer, my spirit level has peaked." Lily spoke. "Ready to unleash my special attack."

"Use it on that carrier, it's about halfway to the Luxiole."

"Target sighted…EXTREME LANCER!"

Four railgun shots fired and the carrier took a huge amount of damage but it was still moving.

"Angels, take care of the other ships, I'll deal with what's left of the carrier."

My miniguns and missiles did the rest of the work, the carrier then exploded. I checked the map to see the last two destroyers gone, there was nothing left.

"All targets destroyed." Tact said. "Excellent work, Angels, return to the Luxiole."

We returned to the hanger and got out of our frames, Anise had to go and see Tact and this reminded me of her situation. Since her contract with Mint was no longer present, she would be leaving soon.

Sometime later, we got a call up to the briefing room where Tact and Anise were waiting.

"Thank you angels for coming." Tact said. "Now Anise, I would like to recount of your sudden involvement in all of this, but I must also praise for your quick wit and your thinking that's allowed us to get this far."

"Thanks Tact." She replied.

"It would be a real shame and a huge blow to our power if you were to leave us. But I would respect your wishes if you still desire to leave."

"Nooo! Please don't go!" Nano exclaimed, grabbing on to Anise.

"Anise, didn't you say that you were thinking that you wanted to stay?" I asked.

"I did…and you know what Arnold, you and Tact are right on one thing, about the power of the Angel Wing. The more of us there are, the better the chance we have of winning."

Tact began to smile. "Then it looks like we've made a decision."

"Yeah…I have decided that I am going to stay with the Rune Angel Wing." Anise smiled.

The other angels were happy to hear about it and so was I. Tact then brought out an angel wing uniform jacket as well as a contract.

"Then from today forward, Anise Azeat, I hereby enter you into military service as second lieutenant of the Rune Angel Wing, here put this on."

Anise took the jacket and she put in on her, it looked like a perfect fit, now she truly was a member of the angel wing. The other angels went in for a group hug, it was time for celebration for our new official member of the group.


	7. How To Save Seldar

**StevieBond: Another new chapter has arrived.**

 **Tact: It's almost like saying reinforcements have arrived.**

 **StevieBond: You've been playing too many RTS games, haven't you?**

 **Tact: Well...maybe.**

 **StevieBond: Sigh...enjoy reading and there's more for me to say at the end.**

* * *

How to Save Seldar

It was the next day after we had our celebration on Anise officially joining our Angel Wing group and we were called to the bridge, since we were now getting close to Seldar.

"Angel Wing reporting." I said.

"Hello angels." Tact replied. "We have been reviewing the transmissions from Forte, this recent one seems to be different."

The transmission was played back and it wasn't the same as before.

"Some of the words have changed." Coco said.

"Really, I think it's just a strange coincidence." Anise replied.

"No I don't think so." Nano pondered.

"Hmm, this could be actually a message." Tact said. "We should dig deeper into what Forte has planned."

"I concur." Lily agreed. "I sense that the message is actually a code, let's replay all the transmissions we have from Forte."

After a while of listening to each one, I couldn't get my head around it, but someone did.

"I've got it." Lily said. "She has revealed to us the location of the crust breakers, they are approaching towards Seldar in the same direction we're heading."

I nodded. "In that case, eliminating those devices will be our top priority when it's time for battle."

"I have another transmission." Coco said. "It's from our allies."

Ranpha then appeared on the big screen. "Hi darling, I have the fleet from Magiic with me and we're ready to join you towards Seldar."

"Nice timing honey." Tact replied happily. "All units get ready to enter Chrono Drive, destination, Seldar!"

After we came out of Chrono Drive, I could see the Planet of Seldar from a distance but there was a huge problem and Coco brought up a huge map on the screen. I had stayed with Tact on the bridge whilst the other Angels were in their rooms.

"Forte's fleet has 700 ships, all protecting this side of Seldar." She said. "Tact, we only have 400 ships to fight with. The crust breakers are behind the enemy fleet and are moving towards Seldar."

"What will your orders be?" I asked him.

"We'll need to be discreet about it." He replied. "We need to act in a way that suggests that we don't know about the crust breakers as this will raise suspicions on Forte's side."

"I see, but even with that in mind, Forte will fight for all she has though."

"In any event, here's how we'll do it." Tact brought up a map in the briefing room. "The Luxiole will move concealed by the Magiic fleet ships around us. They'll break through the centre of the enemy fleet and since this will keep the enemy ships distracted, we'll then deploy the Rune Angel Wing to destroy the crust breakers behind enemy lines."

I really liked the idea, attacking the enemy targets from within, a blind eye tactic.

"In the meantime, Arnold, you and the rest of the Angel Wing will be on standby. Be sure you all are ready for combat as soon as it's safe to proceed."

"Got it Tact, we'll save Seldar in any way we can."

I left the briefing room and stood by in the hanger. The Luxiole was being shaken about a lot however, we were taking heavy fire by the enemy fleet. I wasn't sure how we were going to last or if we were gonna make it in time.

Eventually, the attacks began to stop and the hanger doors opened. Kazuya chose to merge his frame with Apricot's since he hadn't done so for a long time. Out we flew and I brought up the radar as the battle started.

There were four destroyers, four cruisers and six crust breakers heaving for Seldar. I didn't need to be reminded of the objective, eliminate all crust breakers. But getting to them would require some speed.

"Anise and Apricot, I want you two and myself to go after the crust breakers, our frames are the quickest to get to them. Lily, Nano and Kahlua, deal with the enemy ships that try to pick us off guard or come after the Luxiole."

"Affirmative, Arnold." Lily replied on my screen. "We'll take care of those."

We break away from the group and flew straight at the first crust breaker, with us three together, it went down quickly. Onto the second one and Apricot was ready with her special.

"HYPER BLASTER!" The second crust breaker was done for.

"GENOCIDE BOMBER!" That's the third one down.

By then the other three angel had taken out the destroyers, but now the cruisers had changed course and they were coming for us.

But we carried on with taking out the crust breakers, down went two more, only one was left and it was close towards the edge of the map.

"Time for my drill…SPIKE DRIVER!"

The last one was gone and the cruisers began to retreat.

"All crust breakers destroyed." I said. "Remaining ships are retreating."

"Planet Seldar is safe!" Lily exclaimed. "Thank you, Arnold, for your Angel Wing leadership."

"Oh it was nothing. We won because we all pulled together. Anyways, let's withdraw for now."

We flew back into the Luxiole and got out of our frames. We were then contacted to go to the bridge where there was an incoming transmission from Forte.

"Tact, the underling that forced me to do the actions has left." She said. "I request evacuation immediately."

"Got it Forte, a space shuttle is coming to pick you up."

"I also have the location of the enemy flagship that is behind all of this."

She brought up a picture of a huge flagship that looked a little menacing, I saw the allied fleets firing on it, but it appeared to remain undamaged, it was a flagship alright but we weren't sure who or what it is.

"Incoming transmission from the enemy flagship." Coco said.

An image was displayed and I almost lost all control, it was Milfie! She was wired up to some kind of machinery, so that's where she was taken.

"Milfie!" I yelled. "So who is it…who's pulling the strings?!"

"It is I." I heard a sly voice reply before the source of the voice appeared on screen. "I am what you might call an alien. I am Verel, the last of the original inhabitants of ABSOLUTE."

Damn, he looked freaky, no wonder he was the last of his kind.

"So it was you who kidnapped Milfie?!"

Verel laughed. "Your emotions are overflowing, just as I expected."

"Arnold, I need you to stay calm." Tact said. "Now tell me Verel, why did you have Forte be forced to form the coup?"

"Very well, I will tell you…the coup was just a part of a much greater plan for one as myself, which is to regain access to ASBOLUTE and declare my place as its rightful ruler."

Tact chose to ask on my behalf. "And what about Milfie, what did you do to her?"

Verel grinned. "Milfie is located inside the Master Core of ABSOLUTE. Be at ease, for she is unharmed."

Well I was relieved to hear that, as was everyone else.

"And I think know why." I said. "It's cause you need her to activate the dimension gates as part of your greater plan as you put it."

"Indeed so, human…her safety is guaranteed. But that isn't everything, I know about the curse and how you haven't faced it yet…do you believe you can withstand the mental suffering that awaits you?"

"I have the power of one thing that you don't and it's going to help me overcome it, you'll wait and see."

"We shall see indeed…if you are strong to survive." he suddenly cut the transmission.

I looked out at the bridge window, his flagship turned around and suddenly flew away along with the remaining enemy ships.

Tact intervened. "Verel, come back!"

"It's too late, he's gone…" I sighed.

Whilst I was glad to know that Milfie was not hurt, it still pained me to see her the way she was. A beep went off and a shuttle arrived in the hanger, the shuttle door opened as we were waiting and out came Forte and she seemed to be okay.

"Hey Rune Angel Wing." She said. "It's alright, I'm back on the winning side."

"Well that's great to know, Forte." I replied. "I admit, you had us completely fooled a few times with those transmissions."

"So this is who Forte really is?" Anise asked.

Forte noticed her. "Oh, are you Anise, the new angel wing member?"

"Yeah, that's me."

"Well let's just say that I'm like a tougher version of Ranpha."

"Oooh, now I'm more interested."

"Uhh before we continue, let's head to the tea lounge, I'm sure Tact would like to speak with you." I intervened.

We were in the tea lounge and as Tact walked in, there was a long stare from him towards Forte before the tension was broken when he smiled and sat by us.

"Alright Forte, I think we all have a few questions." Tact said. "You angels form a line, please?"

"Forte, is Milfie really okay?" Apricot asked.

"I can confirm that Milfie is truly unharmed." Forte replied which made Apricot sigh in relief.

"I wish to know about Verel." Kazuya said.

"That's gonna be hard to talk about." Tact replied. "He was the last of his kind that we discovered when the Central Globe was finished contracted and that the Chrono Gates were first put into activation. After a while however, I admit that I completely forgot all about Verel."

"Why was NEUE chosen as the dimension that needed assistance?" Kahlua asked next.

"Allow me to correct you there a little. NEUE was the first surviving dimension we had the desire to assist after discovering 50 other dimensions that did not survive the effects of the Chrono Quake Bomb four years ago."

Lily was next. "What about the Royal Family, are they safe?"

Forte stood in for that one. "It's okay Lily, the Royal Family in Seldar are unharmed and we're on good terms. I'm sorry that I had to put you through a lot of grief because of what was happening behind the scenes."

"Thank you…" she sniffed and smiled.

"How exactly was Verel's ship able to remain undamaged by those attacks?" Anise asked.

Forte looked concerned. "I'm not even sure myself, I don't even know that ship's offensive capabilities yet."

"What is our course of action now?" Nano asked.

"We'll hold a meeting in Seldar while the resupplying takes place on a near resort planet known as Hokkori." Tact replied.

"Hokkori? That sounds like a holiday resort." I said.

"We're not exactly on vacation." Kazuya responded.

Tact giggled. "Actually we are kind of on a vacation now, since Verel left with most his fleet decimated and his current location is unreachable at this time."

I began to pluck up. "Oh I nearly didn't get to ask my question and it's to you, Forte."

"Sure Arnold, what do you need to know?" she asked.

"Angels, I think we better leave ourselves out of this." Tact said. "Let's go."

Tact, Kazuya and the five girls left the tea lounge, at least I had some privacy.

"Okay, there's no one else around. I wanna know first how you're feeling?" Forte asked.

"Well, it's twice I've seen Milfie in such a state, first getting captured and now seeing her strapped up to that machine."

She was worried. "When I saw that, I nearly began to sweat. It was awful to see her like that."

"Then my question is what can we do, how are we going to save her?"

"Did you forget what Tact said, we can't get to her right now since Verel's location is unknown and we can't go there at this time."

I looked down and sighed. "But I can't just wait, knowing that she's there whilst being watched over by that alien freak!"

"I know…but when the time is right, I and the rest of the girls will find a way to help and rescue her. I would ask for Chitose but her commitments on the Elsior and her role as captain are needed."

I said nothing.

"Be strong, Arnold like you have been for the Rune Angel Wing. You have done an incredible job as leader, just keep on fighting as a leader. Keep on believing in hope as a leader and always remember everyone who respect you as a leader."

I began to smile at her words of courage. "Forte…thank you."

"I've gotta see Tact about something now, we'll talk again later."

She left the tea lounge and I left too and made my way to the Piroti to find the other angels by the benches.

"So Kazuya, have you had any experience in having a relationship as kissing?" Nano asked.

"Nah, I was busy studying at a culinary school to find a relationship." Kazuya replied.

I stood by the wall, folding my arms and watched over them, they were indeed the best pilots I had under my wing, I wouldn't have it any other way.

"You sure are inexperienced." Anise teased.

"You're inexperienced too." Kazuya replied back.

Anise suddenly leg swept Kazuya and grabbed him by the collar. "Well how about I make you experienced, huh?"

She began to move her head towards his, Kazuya was unable to stop what was about to become a kiss…until she let him go.

"Hah, I was just kidding."

Kazuya didn't seem to take it well. "Why, why did you fool me?"

"Oh so I take it you wanted me to finish?"

He looked embarrassed. "I wouldn't have wanted to share one with you."

"Then who would you rather share the one kiss with?"

This got the other girls more interested, thinking on who does Kazuya like. Then a beep went off on his jacket.

"Kazuya, please report to the commanders room." Coco said.

"Gotta go, bye!" Kazuya exclaimed before he rushed out of the Piroti.

I walked towards the other girls and I was giggling.

"Well that was quite entertaining, girls." I said. "But I think you went a bit too far there, how did this came about anyway?"

"I mentioned it when I was talking about my relationship building exercise with Kazuya the other day." Lily answered.

"Oh, what kind of exercises did he had to do?" Apricot asked.

"First we wore matching shirts with each other's names and faces on it before dining on a cake together. Then at night fall we continued the exercise in the park, the next day we finished me giving him a surprise wakeup call as I dressed up in a costume before taking part in a tea stalk drink contest and we finished with me cleaning out his ears."

The matching shirts, the cake and the costume sounded very familiar but everything else seemed new to me, especially the tea stalk drinking part, never heard that before.

Then we heard a beep from my jacket. "Yes Tact?"

"Angel Wing, I am ordering all girls to return to their rooms for now." He said. "We'll be reaching the planet of Hokkori very soon." The call ended.

"You heard him girls, I'll wait out here in case Kazuya comes back."

The girls nodded as they went to their own rooms, soon Kazuya came back and he had something in his hand.

"Welcome back Kazuya, what's that you got?" I asked.

"It's a free ticket, it's like a first class pass to a resort on Hokkori." He replied. "Tact says that I should take the angel wing girl that I like the most with me to relax with during our downtime."

"Now that's high quality treatment. You lucky son of a gun!" I laughed.

"Yeah but the problem is I don't know who to take. Who do you think I should go with?"

"Don't ask me that question, it doesn't suit a sub-leader like you."

"Then how will I know who to choose?"

"Give it time in your room, I'm sure that the girls that possibly like you the most may volunteer to nominate themselves."

"Really?"

"Well, that's what I think could happen. Anyways…just head to your room and give it some thought, don't leave until you are absolutely sure of your big decision."

"Okay Arnold, I'll think about this…"

"Good move…best of luck to you, Kazuya."

"Thanks…"

He went to his room, with no one else around, I went back into mine to have a long-needed sleep. I wonder what the resort of Hokkori looked like, I wish I could go.

* * *

 **StevieBond: Alright, even at this point in time...I still haven't decided on who will be Kazuya's partner, so I'm at a crossroads here. I'm not sure when I'll eventually come to a choice, but I'll find a way soon in the next chapter.**


	8. Arnold versus the Curse

**StevieBond: Alright everyone, this is perhaps the most twisted chapter I've made in a story.**

 **Arnold: It involves that curse, doesn't it?**

 **StevieBond: I'm not saying anything, but I will say that I have made my choice on who to pair Kazuya up with, but that won't be revealed until the next one after this, for now enjoying reading this dark twist part of the story.**

* * *

Arnold versus the Curse

Sometime later, I began to wake up and I checked the clock on the wall of my room. "Hmm, it's only the late afternoon. I guess Kazuya and whichever girl he chose in the end is probably on Hokkori by now."

I tried to open the door but it seemed to be jammed, I tried opening it with all my might, until it suddenly flung open and in front of me was my reflection on a mirror with a strange circle pattern behind it.

"DAH!" I exclaimed, jumping back.

The mirror suddenly disappeared along with the circle.

"What the heck was that? Are the other angels playing tricks on me?" I began to feel a bit of pain in my head. "And what's with this all of a sudden? Maybe I need to get some fresh fluid in me."

I walked over to the water fountain between the plants and as soon as I got a drink of water with a cup, the tap didn't stop running even after I had turned it off. The liquid began to suddenly change colour from clear to red.

"Okay, that's NOT supposed to happen!" I yelled, pointing at it.

A quick flash of the circle pattern appeared and faded away, then the liquid went back to clear water and stopped running. This was getting freaky by the minute, what the hell is going on here?

"Hello?" I called out. "Are any of you girls in here…Kazuya, maybe Tact?"

There was no reply, only silence filled the air. That made me feel uneasy.

I left the third floor and walked to the second floor, hoping to find someone would be there. Starting with the cafeteria, I walked in and there was no sign of Lunti, not even the kitchen was on.

The lights by the dining tables suddenly began to flicker with one of them breaking and shutting off. In an instant, the appearance of a message displayed itself on the wall.

 _I am watching you…_

"Oh yeah, real funny." I retorted. "Come on out, whoever did that."

The red circle appeared again and I began to feel pain in my head. I left the cafeteria and walked to the tea lounge. Melba was not there, but I did spot either someone or something with a huge dark cloak, covering the appearance.

"Who are you?" I asked.

The clock suddenly turned, there was no one inside the cloak, until the lights above the lounge flicked and I began seeing an awful disturbing face I didn't even want to describe.

"ARGH!" Red circles appeared around the lounge as the cloak and the person disappeared.

Another message was displayed on a wall…in bright red.

 _You will not escape!_

"This is getting far too creepy, where the hell is everyone?!"

I dashed out of the lounge and ran down to the first floor, I prayed that Doctor Mordent would be in the infirmary, as I walked in, he was not there, but what I saw was more disturbing than moments ago.

Bodies were laid on the infirmary beds, they seemed to look nothing out of the ordinary, until one of them suddenly sat up and looked at me with blood red eyes.

"Heeeeellooooooo Arrrrrrrrnoooooolllddd." The voice called in a slow yet creepy tone.

My eyes widened in complete shock. "What the fudge?!"

"Plaaaaaaaaaay wiiiiiiiiiith meeeeeeeeee…."

"NO THANK YOU, BYE!"

I didn't wanna spend another second in there. I dashed to the engine room and not even Maria was here, the Chrono string engines were not in motion either. I know the Luxiole is currently on Hokkori, undergoing resupplies but still…this isn't right.

Circles appeared yet again, I was almost beginning to feel irritated by their constant pop ups everywhere, even a message was planted here.

 _Enjoy the horrors to come, this is only the beginning…_

"What do you mean by horrors?" I asked at the message. "Why is this happening to me?!"

The message faded away…I'll check the hanger, there probably won't be anything for me except…that! I ran over and saw that the Emblem Frames were gone!

"Wait…how are the Frames not here? And where the heck has mine got to?"

Another message appeared by the hanger doors.

 _I still remember you…do you remember me?_

"Remember? How could I remember someone I don't even know?!"

The lights on the hanger began to flicker and then a person stood in front of me, it was Milfie...but…but she was covered in blood, her evil face alone was disturbing enough.

"HA HA HA HA HA!" she laughed at me, manically.

"ARGH!" I yelled. "I'm getting the hell out of here!"

I ran out of the hanger, not caring for the red circles that appeared more often through the hallways. "This…this can't be happening…I must be still dreaming!"

There was only one place left I thought would be safe…the bridge, I made my way there…but it was far worse than I thought. There was no sign of Tact, Coco or anyone else. The room was too empty…except for one huge red circle in the area, feeling a little brave for my own good, I walked towards the circle and took note of the patterns inside.

"Wait…those patterns look familiar…they're like the ones I saw when we took out that magic barrier that Dieta was using…" I said proudly before it finally hit me. "…no…no it couldn't be!"

I had realized what had happened and it never occurred to me until just then.

I sighed. "The curse…the curse that Dieta put on Kahlua and mentioned my name…it has taken effect and it happened when I didn't expect it."

Now I had begun to pray that the mental barrier that Kahlua casted on me was working, because this was fast becoming a living nightmare.

The huge red circle began flashing and the lights on the bridge switched off, leaving only the rays of the circle as the only source of light.

Another message appeared on the ceiling.

 _My soul has not forgotten you…but you have._

 _Enjoy the view, it could be your last…_

I looked at the windows, several stars began to move…incredibly creepy on their own. Now the stars began to form an image, like a constellation. Once the stars were in place, they changed to a red colour, the image was a face but the lines were all over the place.

Another message appeared below the image that got more disturbing for my eyes.

 _Is it time for you to encounter this dark and twisted fate_

 _For you have shown resilience with your mental state_

 _Background Music: Earthbound - Giygas Theme_

The lights on the bridge flicked again, changing to red, then to black and switching between the two colours. The sound of a heartbeat was heard with faint whispers and distant screams.

"Whoever you are…whatever you are…show yourself…SHOW YOURSELF!"

Thunder noises and lightning images appeared in the red circle…there, a person appeared with a dark cloak covering all except the head…I could only see one side of the face, but it wasn't anyone that was on the Luxiole.

"ARGH!" I yelled as my head was in so much pain.

"Do you remember me now?" the voice asked.

I blinked. "Wait a second…that voice…"

"I was your rival…for the affection…of the one…you love."

Thunder noises went off and soon his head began to reveal blue hair…wait…the blue hair, the red rose on the side…that creepy yet charming look…all the memories of that image was flowing back right my head.

"No….NO….NOOOO!" I yelled, realizing who this person was. "IT CAN'T BE!"

"Oh but I am…I am the one you now suddenly remember."

"I KILLED YOU!" I stood back in fright. "CAMUS O. LAPHROAIG!"

"HA HA HA HA HA!" He laughed manically. "So you do remember after all…I am flattered."

I had to regain my ground, whatever was going on now, it was time for some answers.

"Alright then, Camus. What's your beef with me now?" I asked with a serious expression. "How are you still standing after all these years?"

"Standing…what you see before you is my soul that is trapped…in this curse."

"Trapped? What do you mean?"

"When Verel captured Milfie, Dieta made a personal check over and used a spell to trace Milfie's memories of myself and combined the memories with a curse spell she casted on Kahlua."

"I see…and when the curse started to take effect."

"It would be my opportunity to settle the score with you in the one place where you cannot psychically harm me."

"So I'm still dreaming?"

"On the contrary, you are not. The disappearance of the people you know on the ship, this is all part of the curse."

"How do I stop this curse?"

"I will not tell you such a thing, you took away everything that was dear to me." He looked at angrily. "My honey who I saw first, my hell hound friends and the future I should've had when Lord Eonia would succeed to the throne."

"Allow me to correct you there." I said as I started walking around the circle line, forcing him to do the same on the opposite side. "I saw Milfie first back on the White Moon and when she became my lover, you just couldn't accept it, could you?"

"When she started to love you and not the one she should've loved that was me, I knew then that if I was to have her for all my heart, you would have to go. The parting of you would've been the greatest moment of my life."

"And that's why you and the rest of the hell hounds gave your souls away to the Black Moon, so you could win over us, no matter what the cost?"

"Anything to achieve my goals…but once it happened, I had accepted my fate and my soul was left to wonder the galaxy…left to be remained as a memory of the one person that Milfie used to know."

"Well it's far too late for you now, mister lost soul." I smirked. "Milfie's is engaged to me, I am the leader of the Rune Angel Wing and I have the finest pilots under my command with a young boy who I believe is going to be the next best star of the galaxy should anything happen to me."

Camus chuckled evilly. "You are still incredibly naïve…whatever goals you have mentioned are a waste of breath. Now allow me to finish off what I should've done, all those years ago."

"Not if I have the chance to defend myself…" I checked my uniform shirt underneath my jacket…my gun was still there, I pulled it out and aimed at him.

Camus smirked. "Oh Arnold…you would only be wasting your bullets. If you wish to settle the score and overcome this curse, you're going to have to do better than that."

"Just let me try! Argh!"

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

Dammit…he was right, the bullets went right through him. My weapon had no effect.

"I told you so…I sometimes hate being always right, you know." He then pulled out some kind of spiked light from his hand. "Now allow me to respond to your failed attack."

He swiped it at me but I was able to dodge it easily.

"Hmph!" He groaned. "Not too bad…but you can't dodge your cursed fate forever."

He swiped several more but I kept dodging them all. I kept holding on to my pistol and tried to shoot the spiked lights down. It was strange, they hit and the spiked lights were stopped instantly.

"Oh…how un-beneath me." Camus said, through gritted teeth. "You can take those down with your gun?"

"I guess we're at a stalemate now." I replied. "You better tell me how to end this curse if you want this to end."

"Fine…I might as well explain before I have my chance to kill you. The only way for this curse to be removed is that one of us must perish and one survives." He showed a smirk. "But I have an advantage over you. You're still alive, whilst I am a lost soul. If I kill you, I would be able to have more fun with you for all eternity."

"But if I find a way to kill you…where will you go next?"

"Does it matter, you will never find out…now prepare to meet your own fate!"

He brought out two spike beams at once and swiped them at me, I dodged one of them, but the second one was able to catch me…it scraped my left cheek.

"Argh!" I exclaimed. "Damn, those things really hurt!"

"I have plenty more, take these with my charming compliments."

He threw several more and it was getting harder to dodge each one, I tried so valiantly to shoot them as they came towards me, but I was ending up getting scraped in other places…until one caught me in the leg.

I could no longer scream at the pain, my head was pounding away but I still felt like I could keep going. But I kneeled down…my leg was bleeding as were other places where I was cut.

"Ahhh, what a shame…" Camus smirked. "You fought so valiantly like I believed you would, but it is now time to end this battle. No one is coming to save you."

No…it wasn't possible, there has to be a way to beat Camus…there has to be…I can't die here, not like this. He looked at me with his smirk look and those spike beams at the ready…no, I can't give up…I wouldn't be where I am was if I began to lose hope.

Suddenly, a bright light flashed in front of me and it pushed Camus away, I couldn't see clearly, but was a silhouette of a person.

"No!" It was a male voice I heard. "You will not hurt…my son!"

I opened my eyes…no way, it couldn't be… "Father?"

"Arnold…my son…" he turned around and smiled at me.

"Grrr!" Camus roared, far away from us. "So you're here too, how can that be?"

I began to laugh. "It's because, the story of what happened to my father is also in Milfie's memories as well as in mine."

"I too am a lost soul." My father spoke. "But I am not like you, Camus. You will not lay a finger on him anymore."

"Fine…then how about you and I have a duel?"

My father laughed. "I would love to….but first…son, take this." He gave me a small bottle of something inside it. "When the time is right, pour the contents of it all over yourself."

"I will…"

I hobbled out of the way as my father and Camus stood on opposite sides, these lost souls…inside this curse…I was amazed that my mind could tolerate what was going on here. Their battle began and I watched as my father used a sword and a 9mm rifle and yet, it was hurting Camus…I guess lost souls can hurt each other.

I stood well out of the way, trying to heal from the cuts I had received as well as the big one on my leg…then I heard a loud yell…my father fell to the floor…no, he lost!

"Father!" I yelled as I ran over to him.

"My son…I'm sorry that I couldn't win for you…now, use the potion…and end this curse…"

I began to feel emotional. "Father…I can't lose you again!"

"It's alright…I will always be here with you…I will also tell your mother that you said…hi…"

He suddenly faded away, leaving only a sword that was glowing with a light…a light of hope. I then opened the potion and poured all the contents over my body. It took effect all over me immediately. I had lost all of my emotions then…Camus had no idea of the feeling I suddenly had right now.

"Oh well…allow me to let you see him again…by giving you the most beautiful kill ever!"

I grabbed the sword and I shivered, this one move…this one attack, this would end it all. I turned slowly to see Camus flying towards me, I suddenly brought it up when Camus realized it was too late to dodge…

"ARGH!" Camus screamed…somehow the sword caused a major wound on him…I didn't care if he was a soul. "How did you?"

"Run this through you and cause immeasurable pain?" I asked for him. "Because this sword contains the lost souls of my parents and how you ask, because of the potion I poured over myself, it allowed me to have the lost souls power on this sword to be transferred to my living soul, that's all there is to it."

"But…that's not possible!"

"Just accept it and DIIIIE!" I pulled the sword away from his body.

He started screaming in several voices before his face began to crumble away showing a disturbing skull before it phased out…the rest of his body faded as well until there was nothing more.

Suddenly the red circles and the messages faded away and the lights across the bridge went back to normal colour…was that it, was the curse finally over?

Suddenly a bright light covered my whole vision, I couldn't see anything…

 _End Of Background Music_

* * *

I had closed my eyes for a while…and then I began opening them slowly. I had woken up to find myself not at the bridge, but in the infirmary…and this time I wasn't alone. I felt a hand on my head and I when I slowly got up, I looked it see whose hand it was.

"Tequila?" I asked.

She gasped. "Arnold…you're awake?"

"Yeah I am…then I was dreaming the whole time?"

"Actually, you had fallen into a deep sleep." Doctor Mordent answered. "When Tact tried calling you, you didn't respond and that was when everyone else began to realize something was wrong."

"Tact opened the door to your room because it was an emergency." Tequila continued. "When you wouldn't wake up, I was really worried that it was the work of the curse that was placed on me."

I looked down, feeling depressed. "When I saw those red circles, I began to learn that it was indeed part of the curse…"

"I still wanted to help you just in case my mental barrier didn't work…but it seems that my worry wasn't needed, whatever you did had a positive effect on me…"

"How so?"

"Well, seconds after you did something, the remains of the curse began to break away from my body and mind…I knew then that it was over, the curse was gone…and you made it possible."

"Yeah, I guess I did…"

Then the other angels burst in to the infirmary.

"Oh my goodness!" Apricot exclaimed.

"Arnold's awake!" Nano added in happiness.

"Hell yeah!" Anise yelled with a smile.

"I knew you'd pull through in the end." Lily said. "It's just like Tact said in his stories."

"Arnold…you're back." Kazuya said. "How are you feeling?"

I should be happy…but I wasn't, the moments of what I had to go through and suffer in that curse…I ended up breaking down in tears.

"I'm sorry Angel Wing…hic…" I cried as tears poured out of my eyes. "…it was a damn nightmare…a living nightmare…I shouldn't be feeling weak right now."

"Don't be sorry…" Kazuya replied. "…it's over, the curse is gone."

"Yes I know…I should be happy about it, but the things I saw…they're going to haunt me for all time."

"Please don't say things like that, Arnold." Apricot said. "You're our Angel Wing leader, but to us, you will always be more than that. You'll always be a big brother to me."

"You always tell us how we should be peaceful and focused in what we do as pilots." Lily added. "And I always find myself impressed with your tactics."

"The way you pilot that Silver Speeder makes me proud to be a part of the Angel Wing." Anise complimented. "Seriously, you're like a top guy."

"You're super cool as our leader, I wouldn't have anyone else to lead us except you." Nano added. "Never ever forget that."

"You've done so much for all of us since you became our leader." Tequila said. "But you haven't asked for anything from us in return once."

"So when we heard about the situation, we all came together to help you out." Kazuya added. "I'm more than happy to be your sub-leader, so please don't think of yourself any less than what you are."

I continued crying…but I was smiling, my tears were of happiness instead of sadness.

"Angel Wing…" I sniffed. "…seriously, I cannot thank each and every one of you enough for this…I guess you all did owe me a favour in return at some point."

"I know, let's have a group hug!" Nano said happily as I got off the bed.

Tequila hugged me with Apricot and Anise on my left side, Lily and Nano on my right side and Kazuya giving me a handshake with his two hands.

They were right…all of them were so right. Moon Angel Wing aside, these six people were my best friends, I am proud to be leading them and I wouldn't change any of it for the galaxy!


	9. The Trouble With Love

**StevieBond: New chapter and Kazuya's chosen partner has been revealed.**

 **Kazuya: Finally, you took nearly forever to make that choice.**

 **StevieBond: Oh be quiet you, be thankful I gave you a girl to fall in love with.**

 **Kazuya: Why do you sometimes moan in these segments?**

 **StevieBond: Because I can, how's that? Anyways...enjoy this new chapter folks, we're almost there.**

* * *

The Trouble with Love

After spending the rest of the day with the angel wing, I was feeling back to normal. There are so many things I never wanted to go through again and that curse was no exception. During the next day, I was at the Piroti when I saw Kazuya, which reminded me, I needed to ask him a few things.

"Hey Kazuya." I said. "I didn't get to ask you earlier because of what happened. But I would like to know something."

"Sure, what is it?" he asked.

"Well first of all, who came to see you outside your door?"

"Well, it was Lily who asked me to be her date for the vacation first, then it was Nano and finally, Rico. Kahlua and Anise didn't ask me, because they thought I would be better suited with someone else."

"I see…so who did you choose in the end?"

"Well before I made my choice, Forte gave me a bouquet of flowers and said that Tact had to go through this once when he asked Ranpha out years ago."

"I had a feeling it would involve flowers…I wish I had given Milfie flowers back then. But anyways…come on, who did you went for?"

"I chose…Lily to be my date, so I went in her room and gave her the bouquet of flowers."

"Lily, eh? Nice going, kid. Although if you ask me, anyone of them would've been ideal for you but Lily though, she's kind of hard to get but well done there. So how did it go?"

"It was a great vacation, the resort island on Hokkori was amazing. Although Lily's swimsuit was kind of distracting me as we got involved in a lot of activities. We even had a photo taken."

"Sounds cool and all, I don't blame you for getting distracted by a swimsuit. That once happened to me on the Elsior, it was like a garden of flowers as Vanilla put it. So what happened then?"

"After we came back from our vacation, Rico handed out a mail that was given to me I opened it to show a hologram picture of me and Lily on the resort island."

"Well that was quick, so where is the hologram photo?"

Kazuya looked away and sighed. "It was last seen being thrown down in the garbage chute. I thought that Lily wanted to keep it, but she refused because she had no need for it, her words."

"Huh? Okay, that is strange for her to do that. But at the same time, I can kind of understand why that happened. Lily isn't exactly the romantic type who follows her emotions like Apricot or Kahlua would."

"But she didn't need to throw it away, I could've kept that if she asked me to."

A beep went off on my jacket. "Go ahead."

"Arnold, please get the Angel Wing to the briefing room, there's a meeting shortly." Tact replied.

"Okay, we'll be there." I looked at Kazuya. "Don't worry about it for now, when this meeting is over, I'll try to help out."

"You don't have to…but thanks."

I called for the other angels and walked with them to the briefing room where Tact was waiting for us.

"Angel Wing, good to see you…and Arnold, I heard about what happened yesterday. How are you feeling?" he asked me with concern.

I smiled. "Fully recovered. Thanks to this amazing group."

Tact smiled. "I'm very glad to hear it, now I have some unfortunate news. Forte has been put under arrest due to her actions against Seldar."

"Under arrest?" Apricot gasped.

"But why?" Nano asked.

"She was trying to do the right thing with saving Seldar, right?" Kahlua asked too.

"I can understand why that's happened, her actions against Seldar weren't exactly reasonable." Anise said.

"I agree, it's an understandable action." Lily added.

I nodded. "To be honest, we should've seen that coming, I mean she was our enemy for a while, even if she was being forced to by Verel's forces."

"Don't worry about it angels, Forte's punishment will not be too severe." Tact continued. "It'll be fine for her as long as Verel's forces are subdued."

"I see, so it could be a race against time in some way, anything else?"

"Yeah, as Forte predicted, the Chrono Gate by Seldar that we need to reach is guarded by Verel's ships, but we still have time to prepare before then. Meeting is over for now, Angels, report to the hanger on my call when we're ready."

"Understood Tact, we're off."

We left the briefing room and walked to the cafeteria, it was almost lunch time according to my watch. After the meal, I heard a beep go off on my jacket.

"Yes?"

"Arnold…we got an incoming group of ships towards us, this might be the enemy's front line." Tact replied. "Get to the hanger, quick."

"Got it Tact." I then made another call. "Angels, enemy ships have been sighted, get to the hanger so we can deploy for combat." I ended the call.

I dashed over to the hanger and got into my frame, waiting for the others to arrive. As soon as we were ready, we flew out with Kazuya merging his frame with Lily's.

Tact appeared on our screens. "Our location is currently here and the enemy is deployed like this."

"Those ships look new to me and they may be fast." I replied.

"Those are fast attack ships, kind of like the high speed frigates we used to deal with. But these ones are a little faster and have more firepower. Your objective is to eliminate the entire fleet so we can continue pushing towards the Chrono Gate."

I nodded and the battle began to start.

"Alright angels, here I go! I'm a different person today!"

"Woah, what an amazing drive Arnold." Kazuya replied. "I can feel your power from here."

"That means his frame has peaked, he'll be on top form." Apricot said.

I smiled. "That's right…there's nothing that's gonna get between me and our destination."

I flew for the fast attack ships on the right and mowed down the first one, I launched my missiles as the second one and down that went quickly. I checked the map to see the others taking care of themselves with the ships on the left as the Luxiole began to move when there was more room.

As soon as I took care of my part of the side, more ships appeared on the radar, damn, enemy reinforcements and two of those new ships are carriers, they must be en-route to the Luxiole.

One of them was close to me and I was ready for my special. "SPIKE DRIVER!" My drill tore through the carrier in half whilst the other angels dealt with the other carrier.

However I wasn't looking in front of me completely and I nearly collided with a space rock, my frame got a bump, a few scratches I'm sure.

"Arnold, let me repair you." Nano said on my screen.

I nodded as her frame speeded towards mine until I saw a cyan light around my ship.

"Thanks for that, Nano." I replied.

I checked the map and saw there were no enemy ships left.

"Enemy fleet destroyed…well done angels."

"Yeah…we did well." Kazuya said glumly.

I sighed…he must be still hurt from earlier.

We flew back to the Luxiole and stored our frames, I walked over to see Lily and Kazuya whilst the others had left already. It wasn't right of me, but I stood out of sight and listened in to their conversation.

"Kazuya, what's wrong?" Lily asked. "Your Braveheart wasn't performing well with my frame."

"It's nothing, really." Kazuya replied, trying to dismiss the issue.

"It is something…maybe we should train together to quickly resolve any issues you have."

Kazuya was beginning to feel irritated. "No offence but I find your training exercises as overused, was our vacation activities part of a training exercise too?"

"Why yes it was." She responded positively.

"Ugh!" Kazuya stormed out of the hanger…I hadn't seen him angry like that before.

I walked out from hiding and stood by Lily. "What's wrong with Kazuya, why was he mad at me?" she asked.

"I think he's feeling hurt after you threw away that package…yeah he told me about it, so you don't need to explain. You should probably try to think about it from his perspective on the matter."

Lily felt confused. "But why, were my training exercises not good enough?"

"I think I may have pinpointed the problem."

"Problem?"

"It appears that you treat every social activity as a 'training exercise' and that mind set may have been the cause of the problem."

Lily still didn't seem to understand.

"Okay…it's because Kazuya loves you and the fact that you threw something that meant a lot to him hurt his feelings but also damaged his thoughts on the relationship."

Lily blinked before it finally hit her, now she was beginning to regret what she did. "Then how should I solve the issue?"

"Well, I think you should try to do that on your own. You could ask the other angels for help, I'm going to go and check on Kazuya."

She nodded and I left the hanger and went to the Piroti. I push the beep on Kazuya's door.

"Yeah…who is it?" he asked.

"Kazuya, its Arnold. Wanna resume our talk from earlier?"

"Sure…come on in."

I walked into his room, so this is what his room is like.

"This is the first time I've seen your room, you know."

"Well after seeing yours during that emergency, you probably deserved to see mine in return."

"Oh sweet, you have a guitar?"

"Yeah…it's a secret hobby I have."

"Well, I have a secret for you…I can play the guitar."

Kazuya looked up at me. "Really?"

"Sure, I even know a good song I once heard among a pile of lost technology. Why don't I play it for you, it might take what's on your mind off a little bit."

"Yeah…it would help me a bit."

"Okay, don't be surprised on what else I can do." I lifted up the guitar and sat on a chair and began to play the first few chords.

 _It's not time to make a change_

 _Just relax, take it easy_

 _You're still young, it's not your fault_

 _There's so much you have to know_

 _Find a girl, settle down_

 _If you want, you can marry_

 _Look at me, I am old but I'm happy_

 _I was once like you are now_

 _And I know that it's not easy_

 _To become when you've found_

 _Something going on_

 _But take your time, think a lot_

 _Think of everything you've got_

 _For you will still be here tomorrow_

 _But your dreams may not..._

Kazuya was in shock at my singing voice. "Wow…you can play that guitar so good and you can sing too!" He praised. "You're amazing!"

"Hehe, cheers, Kazuya. I learnt that song and I sometimes sing it to cheer myself up whenever Milfie is far away from me."

"I can understand that…but you're wrong on one thing, you're not that old."

I laughed. "I'd knew you say that. It's just how it goes."

"You know I've been thinking whilst you were performing. Maybe I was wrong to yell at Lily, I should go and apologise to her."

"Well, if you want to, we should go."

I put the guitar down and left the room, when we were at the Piroti, I was in a state of surprise. There were the angels and they were covered in a lot of mess.

"Woah girls…what happened?"

"We went through the trash to find the package!" Nano replied. "And it was fun!"

"Fun? It was disgusting!" Kahlua complained.

"Lily, come quick, show the package." Anise called.

"Huh, you found the package?" Kazuya asked.

"Yeah, it took a while for us to get through the smell, but we found it in the end." Apricot replied.

"Kazuya." Lily said as she showed him the package. "I'm sorry for throwing it away…I finally understand what you meant when you wanted to give this to me."

"Lily…" Kazuya replied, smiling and taking the package and placing it on the bench. "I should be sorry that I yelled at you."

"Since I have been trained within military lifestyle for most of my life, I was unfamiliar with emotions and the like. I wanna let you know of my feelings for you now."

Kazuya grabbed her hands. "Lily, I think I know already…I love you."

Lily smiled. "Kazuya…I love you too."

She moved forward and kissed him on the lips.

"Awww!" Apricot and Kahlua said in unison.

Nano tried to kiss Anise and she jumped right back, making me laugh.

"Well…I'm glad we got that sorted." I said. "But I'm curious, what is on the hologram photo?"

Kazuya unwrapped the package and showed us the photo. It was a photo of him and Lily close together on the beach, back at Hokkori, they did look great together.

"So what now?" Kazuya asked.

"I think these girls could do with a shower before we make our next move. We still have plenty of time before we come into contact with the enemy fleet guarding the Chrono Gate."

The girls looked at themselves, slightly embarrassed at how messy they were.

"Kazuya, could you see me later at the park tonight after my shower?" Lily asked.

"Sure Lily…I'll be there." He replied happily.

"Thank you."

She walked off and so did the other girls to clean themselves.

"Be proud, Kazuya." I said. "You're becoming a young man right now."

"Well it's good to know I'm no longer a kid."

"Haha, you said it."

Kazuya went back to his room with the photo whilst I went back to my room. Seeing that photo reminded me of the photos I had. I had a new one to add after they helped me yesterday, a framed photo of me and the other six all huddled together, I hung it up on a spare hook next to the other photos. I took a lie down on the bed to rest for the evening, I was sure that Lily and Kazuya would be great with each other.

The next day had arrived and we were approaching the Chrono Gate, soon we would be approaching the gateway to ABSOLUTE, except for one huge problem.

"Arnold." Tact said as we were in the briefing room. "Angel Wing, we have finally reached the enemy's defensive line." He showed up a map. "We are currently here and the enemy fleet is in front of us. We have new enemy ships in the area, these six big ones are battleships and they present the biggest threat to the Luxiole and to the allied forces that will be joining us soon."

"So our objective is clear?" I asked.

"Yes, eliminate the battleships so that we can proceed to the Chrono Gate to ASBOLUTE. All of you must work hard together on this one, we're almost there."

"Got it Tact, we'll fight bravely and effectively."

We left and hurried to the hanger to get into our frames, we flew on out with Kazuya's Braveheart merged with Lily's, I had a feeling that their frames will be merged with each other from now on.

The battle started and I noted the ships. Eight destroyers, six cruisers and the six battleships that had to go. "Angels, let's get rid of those destroyers first, they're far too close to us."

I took one down and the one next to it, I made a quick check on the radar, Lily was cleaning house with Kazuya on her end whilst Anise, Nano, Apricot and Kahlua all took down a destroyer each.

The cruisers began to start moving, they would have to go as well. I wiped out one of them whilst I heard a special being called out.

"EXTREME LANCER!" Lily yelled as her special took a cruiser out.

The others had to work in pairs to get rid of the rest.

Now for the battleships and my attack brought one of them down, although it took quite a beating for even my weaponry.

"SPIKE DRIVER!" I yelled, racing towards a second battleship and my drill was able to tear the battleship in half.

The others were able to finish off the rest, the way to the Chrono Gate was now clear and I could see that it was still active.

"Enemy battleships destroyed." I said. "Let's withdraw and push through to the gate."

We flew back inside the Luxiole and rushed to the bridge.

"Good work Angel Wing." Tact said. "Now the allied forces to move to the gate with us."

"Tact, we have an incoming transmission from the enemy flagship." Coco intervened.

"Open a channel."

Verel appeared on screen.

"Humans…" He said in a slithering voice.

"It's almost over, Verel." Tact replied. "We're about to enter your world of ASBOLUTE, you can't stop us now."

"Not yet…I still have the gate keeper with me."

"You lay one claw on Milfie and I swear I will find a way to kill you!" I exclaimed.

He looked surprised to see me. "Oh…so you survived the curse, Arnold?"

"Damn right I did, thanks to the power of the angel wing. It didn't kill me so I am much stronger than ever before."

"You humans of NEUE will not make it past through to my world…better luck next time."

He cut the transmission and suddenly the Chrono Gate began to deactivate and it shut down just as soon as we were getting close.

"Damn that alien bastard!" Tact exclaimed as he stomped his foot.

I could tell that he was angry at what just happened, we were so close but Verel still had the upper hand, due to Milfie still being held captive inside the master core of ASBOLUTE.

Now what the hell were we supposed to do? Tact didn't seem to know either…


	10. The Ultimate Payback

**StevieBond: This is it folks, the last chapter of the story.**

 **Apricot: Awww, it's over?**

 **Anise: No way, it can't be over already!**

 **Nano: I want more!**

 **StevieBond: Relax girls, there are two more parts of this retold trilogy to come soon.**

 **Kahlua: Oh, well that's a relief.**

 **Lily: You better not be fooling us.**

 **StevieBond: Come on ladies, would I lie to you? Anyways, enjoy this last chapter folks. Remember to follow me if you want more stories like this, thank you!**

* * *

The Ultimate Payback

Well I think everyone was in a state of dismay, the Chrono Gate had been shut down thanks to Verel. It had been a while since then and I was in the cafeteria with Kazuya, who was making a gateway design using plates and straws.

"So this is how the Chrono Gates are connected." He said. "The straws showing the gates, the plates representing the galaxies. Connected to this yellow plate, the Control Globe of ABSOLUTE, the two gates of EDEN and NEUE that are connected to this centre."

"I already get all that." I replied. "But how can it be possible for us to turn on the Chrono Gate if we don't have a gate keeper on our side?"

A beep went off in my jacket. "Yes?"

"Angel Wing, report to the briefing room, you're needed immediately." Tact said.

"Understood." I looked at Kazuya. "We have to go."

All of us angels headed on over to the briefing room. "We're here, Tact."

"Good…I have some good news for you…come on in."

In came another person…wait a minute. "Forte?!"

"Hi Angels." She replied.

"What are you doing here, I thought you were placed under arrest."

"No it's not too severe, I'm here to introduce you to someone important and he has two assistants."

Suddenly, two tiny fairies flew into the room and Lily gasped.

"I know these two, that's Kelsie and Santa Rosa." She said.

"Who are they?" Kazuya asked.

"They're the aides that accompany the royal family, which means…"

Another person walked in, cutting her off.

"This is Soldum Seldar." Kelsie introduced.

"The current emperor of Seldar." Santa Rosa added.

Soldum smiled, but he didn't say anything.

"This is a surprise." Anise said. "Are you one of those silent types?"

"Anise! You weren't supposed to speak out of turn." Lily lightly scolded.

"It's alright Lily." Kelsie assured. "Anise meant no harm by it, we know about her name."

Anise blinked. "Huh? How do you know?"

"We know about the name, Garam, which was how we learnt to know you."

"That's the name of my father…" she sighed.

"Anyways, we are getting way off topic here." I intervened. "Do continue, fairies."

"Our emperor prefers to not use his voice towards non-family members, so we speak on his behalf through a mental link." Santa Rosa explained.

"Soldum would like to thank you all for saving our planet." Kelsie said.

"But the real reason we're on board is that we're here to inform you of another way to open the Chrono Gate to ASBOLUTE."

"Really, there's another way?" I asked.

"However, it will require the energy that is formed from the power of the Emblem Frame's H.A.L.O system." Santa Rosa replied.

"We have concluded that Kazuya's and Lily's frames are the only ones powerful enough to help our emperor open the gates." Kelsie added. "We now kindly ask to have a word with Lily and Kazuya alone."

"We understand, Soldum." Tact replied. "Let's go everyone."

We nodded, leaving the room…I already had a feeling on what those fairies wanted to mention to them. It would probably be to do with the power of love, just like how Tact and Ranpha did when they pushed that Chrono Quake Bomb into another space with my help.

After a moment, we walked down to the hanger where a space shuttle was docked and Forte was there, she was smiling for some reason.

"Angels, I have company that you will be familiar with and will be joining you for the upcoming battles." She said.

The shuttle door opened and out came three people.

"Vanilla…Mint…Ranpha?" I asked. "What brings you here?"

"We're going to help rescue Milfie." Vanilla replied.

"But before we can do that, we need to get inside ABSOLUTE." Mint added.

I was about to ask something but then thought better not to.

"Is something wrong, Arnold?" Ranpha asked.

"I was about to ask if you needed me to help, but then I realised I can't." I answered.

"I'm afraid not." Forte said. "The Rune Angel Wing still needs you as their leader. Don't worry though, Chitose will be joining us with reinforcements once Milfie is rescued."

We stood well out of the way as Kazuya and Lily got into their frames and flew out. We all walked up to the bridge and watched a few ships from the Magiic fleet aligned in a circle with the merged frames and saw a huge light enveloped around the Chrono Gate…it was now active, showing the way to ABSOLUTE.

"Alright! The gate is open again!" I exclaimed.

"Quick everyone, let's move!" Tact replied.

The Luxiole moved forward after we picked up Kazuya and Lily's frames and we went through the Chrono Gate. Now in our view was a completely different galaxy. It felt a little unwelcoming and a little dark.

I felt a chill in the air. "So this is ABSOLUTE…hey I can see something over there."

"What are those spikes coming out of that sphere?" Nano asked.

"That must be the Central Globe." Tact replied. "Where Milfie is held captive."

"Tact…the Chrono Gate is closing behind us." Coco said.

She was right, the Chrono Gate had shut down…guess the power wasn't able to keep it open for long. It dawned on me that we were the only ones that made it through.

Suddenly sirens went off around the ship.

"Enemy Fleet detected around the Central Globe!"

"There!" I said. "Looks like this is all they have, they must be defending that globe at all costs."

Kazuya and Lily shortly joined with us on the bridge. "Alright Angel Wing, this is our situation." Tact said bringing up a map. "Our forces are located here, the enemy fleet has us surrounded like this."

"That's quite a large number of ships they have." Kazuya replied. "Can we really take them all down?"

"We'll have to, there's no other way." I responded. "Eliminating the enemy fleet is our only option."

"Once they're gone, the four girls will use the space shuttle to travel to the central globe and rescue Milfie." Tact said. "But we may have to do this quick, we don't know when Verel and his flagship will soon appear."

"Hold on Milfie…we're coming." Apricot said with determination.

"Just a little longer…I'll see her again." I added.

"We'll be watching you from the bridge." Forte said. "Make us proud out there."

"We will."

We left the bridge and rush to the hanger, it was time for perhaps the hardest battle we've had so far. I checked the radar as we flew out the dark purple space of ABSOLUTE. There were twelve cruisers, six battleships and four carriers.

"Angels, this is gonna be a tough one for all of us." I said. "I've been there for all of you since the beginning, I now I need you all to lend me your power and belief as I have done for you."

"Understood, Arnold." Kazuya replied. "We'll work together and overcome our enemies."

"For my sister's sake, let's win this one." Apricot replied.

"You can count on us, Arnold." Nano said.

"I'll swoop in and give those enemies the best bombs ever." Anise added.

"They will be no match for my superior range." Lily boasted.

"I've helped you a lot, I still wanna help you more." Tequila finished.

I smiled with faith and courage. "Alright, that's all of us fired up and ready to go, let's crush the enemy fleet!"

The battle had begun and the cruisers had us surrounded.

"I want three of you angels to cover the left side, two of you come with me and take care of the right side of the map."

Apricot and Kahlua came with me and we fire down the first three cruisers. Lily, Anise and Nano were swooping down the cruisers on the left. Lily was cleaning house once again since Kazuya was with her.

My side took care of the rest and now the cruisers were gone. The battleships were up next and nearly all of us had our specials ready.

"HYPER BLASTER!" Apricot yelled and the first battleship went down.

"HEXA-CROSS BREAK!" Kahlua yelled and a second one was destroyed.

"NEEDLE FLETCHETTE!" Down went a third one.

"GENEOCIDE BOMBER!" A fourth one followed quickly.

"EXTREME LANCER!" Another battleship down, one remained.

"I've got this last one." I said, aiming my drill at the last battleship "SPIKE DRIVER!"

That was the battleships gone, just the four carriers remained, they were gonna be tough to take down.

"Angels let's regroup and take these carriers down one by one."

We all grouped our frames close and took down the first carrier, then a second one went down thanks to our combined attacks. The last two eventually fell down, thanks to the power of hope and my leadership, the enemy fleet was gone.

"Enemy fleet annihilated!" I exclaimed. "We did it, Angels!"

"YEAH!" Kazuya yelled happily.

"Nice going, Arnold." Ranpha praised. "You are awesome!"

"Cheers…" I replied with a smile.

"We're on the space shuttle and about to approach the Central Globe." Mint said. "Stand by for updates."

"Got it…Angels, let's withdraw and wait it out."

We returned to the Luxiole and walked up to the bridge. There was silence for a while, the moon angels must be having a hard time…then after another moment of silence and hoping for good news, a beep went off.

"Incoming transmission from Forte." Coco said.

"Good news to everyone." Forte said on the big screen. "We have rescued Milfie, I repeat, we have rescued Milfie."

"Oh thank the stars!" I exclaimed. "Finally she's safe and away from that awful equipment."

"Milfie!" Apricot sniffed. "I'm so happy." She blew her nose on a handkerchief.

Forte wasn't finished. "We're retreating to the gate on EDEN's side that Milfie has opened up for us. We'll be coming back with reinforcements as soon as we can."

"That's good news." Tact replied.

"But we would like you all on the Luxiole to make a retreat to the NEUE gate that is also opened and fool Verel into thinking that Milfie is still captured."

"A bait and switch tactic, I like the idea." Lily replied.

The transmission was suddenly cut off and now it was Verel who was on the screen and he looked mad.

"I am livid at you, humans!" He exclaimed. "You have foiled my plans not twice…but three times! But do not get ahead of yourself, I still have one more trick up my sleeve."

Suddenly a huge shaped moon began to appear along with several ships around it.

"Wait…is that the Black Moon?" Tact asked.

"Correction…it is the Shadow Moon." Verel replied. "Not only is it powerful in both size and its ability to mass-produce fleets of my kind, but its true strength is the stealth field that makes it undetectable by radar."

"What do we do now, Tact?" I asked.

"We have to make a hasty retreat." Tact replied. "Let's turn this ship around and make a run for it to the Chrono gate to NEUE."

"Tact, we can go through the spiked constructs, that should throw any enemy ships off our backs should they pursue us." Coco suggested.

The Luxiole turned and it was going as fast as it could, once it arrived at the Chrono Gate, I saw something I hadn't seen before. The bottom half of the Luxiole broke off with Coco who had to go down there with several crew members and it flew away through the Chrono Gate to NEUE.

"Don't worry about them, Arnold." Tact said. "They're going to come back with our secret weapon. For now, we gotta hold these fast attack ships off, if any of them get past us, it'll be all over."

I nodded. "I understand, Angel Wing, let's move out."

We rushed to the hanger and out we flew to find ten fast attack ships coming towards us. We didn't have time to think of a tactic, so we agreed to just wipe them all out, that should do the trick.

The battle started and we wiped out the four ships closer to us, another four were closing in but we took them out as well. After eliminating the last two, more enemy ships came into contact, two battleships arrived but we split up into a group of three and took them out, now it was over.

"Huh…" I panted. "…that should give us enough time to rest up before we have to fight again."

We got back to the Luxiole and walked up to the bridge and everyone else was kind of worn out.

"Concentrate all the Luxiole's power on our offensive weapons." Tact said.

"Luxiole weapons ready to fire." Coco replied.

"Fire!"

The weapons on the Luxiole fired on the Shadow Moon but it had no effect.

Verel appeared on the screen and laughed. "Allow me to send more ships your way…but before I do, I have one last offer for you. Tact, this is your last chance to stand down."

"I gladly refuse." Tact replied.

"Suit yourself…"

Suddenly a huge beam fired at the Shadow Moon from an unknown source…until the source revealed itself…it was the Elsior with the Chrono Break Cannon!

Lester appeared on the screen. "Tact, your reinforcements have arrived."

"Nice timing, Lester." Tact said happily. "Then that also means…"

"Moon Angel Wing, deploy and assist the Rune Angel Wing!"

Verel cut into the transmission. "What? That is not possible!"

"Oh didn't you know, Verel?" Tact teased. "Our retreat to the NEUE Chrono Gate was just a diversion and since Forte rescued Milfie, they were able to get help through the Chrono Gate on EDEN's side."

"Grrr!"

"Angels, let's get back to the hanger, we have another battle coming." I said.

We rushed back and got into our frames, for the first time, we were be going to be working alongside the reunited Moon Angel Wing and I couldn't be happier.

I checked the radar, my group was on the left and the moon angels were on the right. There were sixteen fast attack ships and four carriers, the objective should be simple, eliminate the enemy fleet so that the Elsior can fire the Chrono Break Cannon again with its limiters removed.

"Moon Angel Wing, we're back together once again!" I said happily.

"I am so honoured…all of you are back together!" Kahlua exclaimed.

"Settle down girl, we're not out of this fight yet." Ranpha reminded.

"Milfie! I'm so happy you're free!" Apricot yelled happily.

"I am as well, sister." Milfie replied. "Let's win this together!"

"Mother, I've always wanted to fight alongside you." Nano said.

"Well enjoy this as much as you can." Vanilla replied.

Anise couldn't contain her excitement. "This is awesome, I've always wanted to see the Moon Angel Wing in action."

"Well of course, this is a desperate time." Mint replied.

"Forte…I won't let you down." Lily said.

"Stay strong Lily, believe in Arnold's command." Forte replied.

"It's been a while since you watched me train." Kazuya said.

"It has indeed, but I've heard of how far you've come." Chitose replied. "You remind me of when I first started out years ago."

"Alright angels, sorry I have to cut this short, but we have enemy ships in front of us." I intervened. "I wanna make the most of this moment…Moon Angel Wing, engage with the enemy ships on the right. Rune Angel Wing, engage with the enemy ships on our left. Let's move out and fight fiercely!"

"Yes sir!" All twelve of them replied.

My group swooped to the left, noting the four fast attack ships and the carrier behind them. The first two fast ships went down quite quickly and the other two followed, leaving the carrier left. Our combined power mowed it down.

I checked the radar to see the Moon Angel Wing clearing house, all these years and they've still got it, that made me beam with pride. We dealt with the next group on the top left and the Moon Angel Wing did the same on the top right.

"HYPER CANNON!" I heard Milfie yell, wiping out a fast ship, it had been long time since I heard that one.

"I've got two ships in my sight, let's go fliers." Mint said as the two ships exploded.

"This last carrier is mine…STRIKE BURST!" Forte yelled.

There was nothing left after that battle.

"Enemy fleet destroyed." I said. "That was awesome work from all of you."

"It's quite funny that you were commanding us old schoolers." Forte replied. "But you did a terrific job of it."

I laughed. "Hey I'm an old school person too."

"Arnold…" Milfie said.

"Milfie…" My heart sang…I missed her so much.

Tact appeared on my screen. "Umm sorry to break this up, but we're not finished yet."

We returned to the Luxiole whilst the Moon Angel Wing returned to the Elsior and the Chrono Break Cannon was ready to fire. With the limiters removed, it fired at the Shadow Moon, yet somehow it shrugged off the attack.

Suddenly, the Chrono Gate behind us opened and in came the other half of the Luxiole along with two huge cannons that locked on the sides of the Luxiole.

"What are those?" I asked.

"This is our secret weapon." Tact replied. "Everyone stand back…fire the dual-Chrono break cannon!"

Out came two enormous beams that fired at the Shadow Moon…the shield barrier went down and the Shadow Moon began to explode whilst Verel's flagship speeded away. The Shadow Moon exploded and all of the automated ships began to stop moving.

Verel appeared on our screens. "That is it! I've just about had enough of your desperate grab for control!" He exclaimed. "It seems I must deal with you humans, personally."

"Well good, because you're about to get all that you've done." I replied. "Now I'm gonna pay you back for kidnapping my fiancé!"

"Not if I still have a chance to kill you and everyone else first!"

"You are all that remains…and the last thing that's gonna go through you before you perish is the size of my silver drill!"

Verel cut the transmission, there was no more that needed to be said.

"Angel Wing, there is no need for an objective." Tact said. "Destroy Verel and his flagship!"

"Yes sir!" We all replied as the last battle began.

Refilled and re-energized, all twelve of us made the charge at the flagship. Getting closer, it was much bigger than I thought, so we all had to give it everything we got. The ship itself had countless weapons and the damage were doing to it was working but it was going to take a long while.

Even our specials were being fully tested as each and every one of us launched our specials on Verel's ship. When it was close to being heavily damaged, it began to grind to a halt, looks like its engines have ceased to function.

"Angels, the ship has stopped moving…it's time to finish this once and for all!"

"We'll set up for you to make the final blow." Apricot said. "Let's go, Milfie."

"Right behind you, Apricot." Milfie replied.

Their frames moved close together with their specials ready.

"HYPER CANNON!"

"HYPER BLASTER!"

Both lasers fired at the same time and the lights on Verel's ship immediately shut down.

"Alright, here's my payback." I said with my drill at the ready. "SPIKE DRIVER!"

My drill tore right through the bridge part of the ship and I flew away.

"Everyone get away, the ship is about to blow."

Explosives occurred around the ship before it all became engulfed in a huge explosion. That was the end of Verel, that alien freak who caused so much trouble and misery for everyone involved was gone.

We got back to the Luxiole and stored our frames as the Luxiole and the Elsior left the world of ABSOLUTE and into the safer galaxy of NEUE. I and the Rune Angel Wing had grouped together.

"Lily." Kazuya said as he walked towards her.

"Kazuya." She replied as they shared an embrace.

"Now that's what I call a good day's work." I said. "I am proud to have led you all to victory."

"And we couldn't be happier with how we did our part to make it possible." Kahlua replied.

"When you launched that drill right into that ship, I was speechless." Anise said. "You've got a lot of guts, mister."

A space shuttle arrived into the hanger and we stood well back. Out came the Moon Angel Wing, the girls who I hadn't seen all together for a long time.

Milfie was there, but I decided to let Apricot go first.

"Milfie…" Apricot said as she began to cry.

"Apricot…" she replied before they ran into a tight hug.

"Milfie!" she cried. "I've missed you!"

"I've missed you too, sister…"

Lily was close to crying at the scene before Kazuya held her hand.

Apricot blew her nose with her handkerchief again and pulled out of the hug.

Now it was my turn and I was a bit far away from her…the love that I had not seen for a while.

"Arnold…" she said.

"Milfie…"

She started running towards me. "ARNOLD!"

I started running as well. "MILFIE!"

She leapt on to me and I fell down with her softly. We were on our knees, but she wrapped her arms around me and started crying. I had my arms wrapped around her and I was in tears.

"At last…" I cried. "…Milfie, I finally have you in my arms again."

"Oh Arnold…it was horrible." She replied, crying. "When I was captured, I thought I would never…see you again."

We were still crying as I looked into her eyes, we had tears coming out, but I didn't care, I kissed her and we locked our lips in a long overdue moment of passion. We looked back at the others as we picked ourselves up on our feet.

Most of them shed a tear at our reunion, Tact soon arrived and Ranpha ran over to him, sharing a kiss in their embrace. "My darling!" she said.

"My honey!" he replied. "Everyone, I wanna thank and congratulate you all for pulling through yet another miraculous victory."

I held Milfie's hand tightly, she still had her engagement ring on her other hand which made me more relieved, we had wiped our tears away by then.

"See Arnold." Tact said looking at me. "I told you we would get her back."

I had cheered up. "And it's thanks to your hunches, right?"

He rubbed his head. "Well more or less." That made us laugh. "I have more good news, there's a victory party waiting for us in the cafeteria. But we're going to need desserts."

We all looked at Kazuya who realized why we were. "Wait, on my own?"

"Not really, I'll gladly help you with the desserts." Milfie said. "I could teach you a few cooking tips too."

"Then shouldn't we get going, I wanna start the party!" Nano said happily.

"Yeah, let's go!" Anise added.

We walked out of the hanger and over to the cafeteria where Lunti, Kazuya and Milfie began working in the kitchen.

The victory party was finally underway and everyone was having a great time, seeing the Moon Angel Wing back together and working with the Rune Angel Wing, it was priceless, a cherished moment to remember.

After getting a much needed group photo, I took Milfie with me to my room and showed her what it was all like and she was happy.

"Wow, so many pictures…oh look at this one." She said, holding on to a photo I had hanged. "That was on our vacation after we beat Nefuria."

"Yeah, there are so many memories that I wanna keep." I replied. "By the way…I got this for you." I suddenly remembered the name bracelet that Apricot gave me, I pulled it from under the pillow and wrapped it around her wrist.

"It's beautiful…thank you, Arnold." She kissed me.

"You're very much welcome." I held her tight. "I will admit, I was quite scared and alone when I was travelling on this ship, but thanks to the Rune Angel Wing, they kept me focused and I was able to overcome a lot of obstacles."

She sat with me on the bed. "Apricot told me about what happened to you a few days ago…what a nightmare that had to have been for you."

"It was freaky in all sorts of ways…but I was able to save myself from that curse."

"It's never going to happen again, here or far away, I'll will always be with you."

"And I will come for you, no matter where you are." I kissed her. "But I wonder, what's gonna happen next?"

"Well I have to return to my role as gate-keeper of EDEN, but since there is no evil left in ABSOLUTE, it's gonna be much safer to visit me there from now on."

"I guess that could be considered as a silver lining."

She looked at me. "But I want you and I to have a vacation and since I picked the location last time, I want you to pick where we should go."

"I've got a good location in my head…how about the planet resort of Hokkori?"

"Oooh, doesn't that sound expensive?"

"Not for this Angel Wing leader." I smirked.

"Oh you, Arnold…" she giggled.

We laid down on the bed and shared a moment of passion. With no more evil around, it was time for a long due period of peace and love. Would there be more problems should evil return, only the laws of time and fate would tell.

THE END

* * *

 **StevieBond: Coming soon, the second part of the GAII retold trilogy,** **Key to the Infinite Corridor!**


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